'Don’t know if there is a ceiling': How good can Yankees No. 2 prospect Spencer Jones be?
BRIDGEWATER – It’s easy to dream about how bright the future could be for Spencer Jones, but he'd prefer to focus on the present.
The 80th-ranked prospect in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline, and the main attraction on the Somerset Patriots Opening Day roster appears primed for a breakout season with the Yankees Double-A affiliate, following a big-league spring training stint where he had a 1.305 OPS. The 6-foot-6, 235-pound outfielder made significant strides in reducing his strikeout rate while increasing his walk rate and still showcased plenty of well-above-average power and athleticism that will one day carry him to the big leagues.
Just how good can he be?
“I don’t know if there is a ceiling,” new Patriots hitting coach Kevin Martir said. “It’s pretty high. If he puts it all together – and it’s pretty well put-together now – through experience and through the process, he’ll continue to improve and probably burst that ceiling.”
The Yankees first-round pick, 25th overall, from Vanderbilt in 2022, Jones has moved quickly through the system and mostly performed well after a late-August callup to Somerset last season where he batted .261 with three homers and 10 RBI in 17 games.
It was obvious there was more in the tank.
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“I had him here for the last three, four weeks of the season, and I didn’t see the real Spencer Jones last year,” said Patriots second-year manager Raul Dominguez. “From what I’ve seen this year, his spring training was amazing. Seems like he worked really hard this offseason. … I expect a lot of good things from here. He’s excited to start the season here, but I told him that you start here, but you don’t know where it’s going to end. You’ve got to keep working, stay with the plan, stay with the objectives. We can’t wait to see him keep going; we can see him in (Triple-A) Scranton or in the big leagues.”
The key, it seems, is Jones’ effort to eliminate the swing-and-miss in his game, something typical of a player with a corner profile like his, and one that often holds them back from hitting their ceiling.
It isn’t so much a physical adjustment to his swing, Jones said, as it is improving game-planning and pitch recognition so he’s in a better position to do damage.
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“That was my number one goal, to put myself in the best position to see pitches,” he said. “I committed myself to it, and then in spring training, I kept with it. The guys have been great in helping me maintain that progress, and I’m feeling good. … if you’re not in a position to see the baseball well, you’re not in a position to make good decisions. I don’t think I was in a position to make good decisions last year. … big-league camp was awesome, and it was an opportunity to get to know a lot of guys on the other side of the organization and spend time with them. It went well, and objectively it was just fun. I’m excited to get to know those guys hopefully more down the line, and it was great. But for now, the job is here, and I need to get it done."
Who is the Somerset Patriots Opening Day starter?
With plenty of eyes on Somerset starters Brock Selvidge and Trystan Vrieling this season, it’s instead Zach Messinger tabbed as the club’s Opening Day starter Friday night when it hosts the Richmond Flying Squirrels, the San Francisco Giants affiliate, at 6:35 p.m.
It’s a big opportunity for the 24-year-old righthander. Messinger finished the season with Somerset in his final start of 2023 and hopes to springboard his way into the conversation as one of the better arms in a loaded system.
“It’s an honor and a blessing to be able to have that opportunity,” he said. “It’s a really big thing for me. I take it with a lot of pride, and my family is going to be up here to see it, which is nice. … I see every start as an opportunity and a way to develop.”
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Yankees prospect Spencer Jones headlines Double-A Somerset Patriots
