Pirates fans got a good laugh out of the Spencer Jones-Paul Skenes chatter last summer, but the joke has lost some of its punch.
The whole thing started when MLB insider Jon Heyman tried to shut down speculation around a possible Yankees-Pirates swap. During Jones’ wild Triple-A run, Heyman said the Yankees viewed him as almost completely untouchable unless a player like Skenes was involved. He also made clear that Skenes was off the table.
That didn’t stop Pirates fans from treating it like a classic dose of Yankee arrogance. The reaction was basically: you’d only move your strikeout-heavy top prospect for our ace?
Good luck with that. The timing made the whole thing even funnier in their eyes, because Skenes went on to win the Cy Young with a 1.97 ERA while Jones later got hurt at Triple-A.
But Jones has changed the conversation this season, especially after his second call-up to the Yankees. He’s shown exactly why the Yankees were so reluctant to part with him. When his bat is locked in, the upside is huge.
Since returning to the big club, Jones has posted a 21.6 barrel percentage and is nearing an 80% zone-contact percentage, which stands out even more because the average is around 85%. His Savant numbers this year show he’s crushing the ball in the sweet spot of the swing more often than most hitters, and he’s doing it with 90th percentile sprint speed.
So if you strip away the context and just look at the player, the question gets a lot more interesting: would you really trade that for three years of a pitcher with a 3.97 ERA and fading velocity?
One social media post put it bluntly: “Are we sure the Yankees would trade Spencer Jones straight up for Skenes right now?”
Of course, that was still an exaggeration meant to get a reaction. And Heyman’s original point never was that Jones was better than Skenes. It was about the Yankees’ view of Jones at the time, when he was tearing through Triple-A and they didn’t want to include him in any deal unless it was something overwhelming.
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