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By Jackson Roberts
Contributing Sports Writer
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New York Yankees outfield prospect Spencer Jones should make his major league debut soon, and when he does, it will be very difficult to know what to expect.
Jones, the 2022 first-round pick who hit the second-most home runs of any minor-leaguer last season, is in the Aaron Judge/Giancarlo Stanton mold of larger-than-life sluggers. He also moves well and can handle center field on defense, a major developmental win for the Yankees. Unfortunately, he also strikes out -- a lot.
After punching out the most of any farmhand in the game over the past two seasons combined, Jones has a tall task to prove that he won't be too overwhelmed by major league pitchers for his natural pop to show through. It's a tricky needle to thread, and it prompted a player comparison that has to make Yankees fans nervous and excited at the same time.
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Recently, the head of baseball operations for an unspecified American League rival compared Jones to former Yankees trade deadline acquisition Joey Gallo, who had two All-Star appearances early in his career for the Texas Rangers, but fell off hard once his strikeouts began to outweigh his home run potential, starting with the second half of the 2021 season in the Bronx.
“It’s kind of unknowable specifically and definitely a sliding scale depending on the defense and the level of whiff and how much power,” the executive said, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post. “This will be a triggering name for New York fans, but Joey Gallo was a very valuable player striking out 35 percent of the time for a while … and then he wasn’t anymore when the defense and power both fell off.”
Gallo hit 208 home runs in his 10-year career, including back-to-back seasons with 40-plus for the Rangers. But he had a career strikeout rate of 38%, which translated to a .194 batting average despite an above-average 106 OPS+.
Gallo's career stat line is about the minimum Jones would have to do to prove he's worthy of a major league roster spot, especially on a loaded Yankees roster. At some point this year, we should start to see how he responds to the dramatic step up in competition from Triple-A.
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