What he has done in the Electric City is rather - well - electrifying.
Today - July 25, six days before the Trade Deadline Apocalypse - Jones represents the fulcrum point between Yankee hopes and despair. The next few years - maybe into the next decade - could hinge on what happens next week, as the Yankees decide whether to trade Jones... or keep him.
Yesterday, as you've probably heard - (the news zapped across the Yankiverse; I received five texts by late afternoon) - Jones homered three times, raising his batting average to a stupid .400 and his OBS to a videogame 1.407. He leads the minors in HRs and physical brutishness. He stands 6'7" and weighs 240, the size of a Buffalo Bills tight end. (Aaron Judge is 6'7", 282, a Packers DE.)
Obviously, Jones' stats are a small sample hallucination. He hasn't hit a slump yet, and they always do. Also, the numbers bring a jolt of sobriety: Jones strikes out way too often - 70 in 175 ABs this year, at Somerset and Scranton. He's not the next Judge. But he might be - gulp - the next Gallo.
And therein lies the current Yankee dilemma.
In 2017, young Joey Gallo - (before he morphed into the old Joey Gallo) - was a star on the Texas Rangers' horizon. At age 23, he hit 41 HRs. He followed it up in 2018 with 40 more. He won two Gold Gloves, played in two All-Star games and became poster boy for the "Three True Outcomes" batter - the guy who strikes out, walks or homers, and never puts a ball into play. Unfortunately, by the time he became a Yankee, the bad outcomes outnumbered everything else.
We remember Gallo hitting .159 with 12 HRs and even looking shabby in LF. Damn, he sucked! And as we watched him degrade, we saw the Yankees sink with him.
So... think Gallo here. Will they trade Jones, thinking he strikes out too much, and this represents his highest trade value? They can get a 3B or bullpen lug nut who might help carry them to a wild card. Or would they stick with Jones and maybe get a couple all-star seasons out of him, before he turns into Rob Deer.
Imagine this lineup:
1b Ben Rice
2b Jazz Chisholm
ss George Lombard Jr.
3b Your mom
c Austin Wells
cf Spencer Jones
lf Jasson Dominguez
rf Aaron Judge
(As for Anthony Volpe? For now, let's reserve judgment. And Giancarlo? Next year will be his last. In 2027, there will be a buyout.)
The above lineup looks a lot like young teams in Toronto, Boston and Tampa. I wonder if we'll ever see anything like it?
The next few days..
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22 comments:
I'm assuming the fetal position in advance. Next week will probably be horrifying.
I don't expect Cashman to do the right thing. He never does.
Why is my MoM in the lineup?
Have to be out and about most of the day, as Walter Winchell used to say, so just to follow up on a couple things:
—JM, to answer your question: yes, I'm sure you're right that the Beatles had already stopped touring by "Helter Skelter." That's why I put in the next line: "Or maybe he just took the next day off and did some drugs." No whining about modalities.
—Bitty, AA, yes, yesterday was Amelia Earhart's birthday. If she had lived, she'd be 128 now—and a possible Cashman prospect. Go read my friend, Laurie Gwen Shapiro's new book on her. As for Fred Noonan...well, never a good idea to try to fly across the Pacific with a drunk. Just saying.
—Kevin, as for Cashman's contract with the devil, please see my post from, I dunno, sometime in the off-season? When I detailed how Col. Ruppert fooled the devil into selling him Cashie's soul, in return for the Yankees' century of success. Hey, it's the Bronx, Jake.
—Bitty, time to turn to Joni Mitchell's "Amelia": "Oh, Boonie/ It was just a false alarm..."
She looks good in cleats.
Another bad idea - taking a bus to Chicago with a crackhead...
1) A tidy woman, my Mom would bat cleanup. That said, she could never get traded because she never got near a hot stove.
2) Not to diminish Spencer's feat, or his feet, which I assume to be quite large, but all three home runs came off the same aging journeyman pitcher who might very well be selling shoes as of today.
Still, he equaled Jazz's HR derby amount under tougher conditions.
I hope he stays, unless traded for a player that has equal long term potential and not a patch for a team that is beyond fixing this season.
3) It's nice to see the mainstream press start to take on Boone's coddling and flat out delusion. It's a trickle and substantially milder than the gentlest criticism here but it's a start. Boone is starting to show serious wear.
Posted this in the other thread...
Part of the awareness of Boone's inadequacy and ineptitude stems from the teams inability to win big games, where the spotlight shines brightest. and the role he plays in that.
The Nestor Cortez decision in the WS was the first time the media said, "WTF." This year has proven that it was no aberration.
As Groucho once said, "He may look like an idiot and sound like an idiot but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot."
Thanks, Hoss. By the way, was Noonan the inspiration for that Seinfeld thing?
Booooooone.
By the way, I see Severino is likely on the trading block. If we keep him out of Sacramental, he might be an okay number 4. Or even 3, depending.
I’d support a straight up deal - Boone for Setback
I’d support a strait up deal of Boone for back hair.
Steinly will never take that contract - $21M ea year for ‘26 & ‘27
I just keep thinking about Duque’s column a few days ago - maybe the team isn’t worth rescuing. Still, it’s hard to see them standing pat.
Also, Stanton’s buyout (10M!) isn’t until 2028 - source: Cot’s Contracts
I love how spellcheck changed Sacramento to Sacramental.
And true. Too many dineros.
Nah, that's too much to ask for Boone.
The team still has Goldy, Bellinger, Judge, the Martian, maybe Rice and Jazz, plus a few decent uninjured pitchers. I don't know if that's enough to make the team worth saving.
So the Hall of Fame induction and the Yankee game are both at 1:30 on Sunday. Looks like flipping back and forth will be the order of the day. Or for me, the order of the evening.
Cripes, my time differential is even worse than Scottish Yankees Fan.
Ryan McMahon, 't is, then: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/07/yankees-to-acquire-ryan-mcmahon.html
Keefe already addressed this:
"Will Cashman include Spencer Jones, George Lombard Jr. or Cam Schlittler in a deadline deal this year? – Donald
I hope not. The Yankees desperately need a third baseman, but the only one worth parting with pieces like that for is Jose Ramirez and there’s no way he’s available, and it would cost those three and more to get him.
Ryan McMahon leads the league in strikeouts and is nine percent worse than league average for his career despite having played half of his games at Coors Field. Eugenio Suarez is a high-power, high-strikeout right-handed bat and the Yankees already have several of those. I would only want either if the price is meaningless, which it should be."
just did a new post on the trade
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