The New York Yankees are certainly committed to a particular narrative.
Based on reporting from the New York Post’s Jon Heyman, the Yankees are very, very unlikely to trade Spencer Jones.
Seemingly, they’ve fed the same comparison to Heyman twice this week, because he’s now shared it twice.
“Teams with good/great pieces consistently ask the Yankees about top OF prospect Spencer Jones,” Heyman wrote on X. “The Yankees are consistent on this too: They will only trade Jones (and others in package) for Paul Skenes, who’s not available and not going anywhere.”
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Insiders like Heyman usually get such information from the team or an agent. Someone clearly wants Jones’ name thrown out there in relation to Skenes, the best young pitcher in baseball.
Jones has raised his prospect shine in the past month.
He’s always been intriguing. The Yankees took him No. 25 overall out of Vanderbilt in 2022.
At 6-foot-7 with immense raw power, the lefty-swinging Jones is easy to dream on.
But early in his minor league career, there was just way too much swing-and-miss in his game.
He was better to start this season at Double-A Somerset, though, and so the Yankees gave Jones a promotion to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for the first time.
There, he is batting .402 in 21 games with 13 homers, six doubles and eight steals.
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Baseball America recently ranked Jones as the No. 93 prospect in MLB in a midseason top-100 update.
Based on that ranking, Jones wouldn’t come close to being worth a guy like Skenes in a trade. There wasn’t anybody banging that drum to begin with, but Heyman has now made the “this isn’t happening” comparison twice in a week.
The Yankees should just hope Jones can carry over a good portion of his power to the majors. If he can do that, he’ll have been worth holding onto at this trade deadline.
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