Last year's most intriguing Yankee prospect is this year's most intriguing Yankee

Forrest Gump famously compared life to a box of chocolates: 

Ya never know whatcher gonna git... 

Hardy har har. Fetch me a new Depends. Somehow, such crapola masqueraded as folk wisdom back in 1994, seven years before the birth of Spencer Jones.

These days, when Jones comes up, ya always know whatcher gonna git: 

The Second Coming of Joey Gallo. 

In other words - a walk, a strikeout or a home run. 

In 53 plate appearances this year, Jones has 30 times achieved what stat-focused Gammonites call "the three true outcomes:" a HR (Jones has two, belting one last night), a base on balls (he has seven, adding two last night) or a whiff (he has 21, adding one last night.) In his brief flirtation with MLB pitchers, Jones has brought the three true outcomes 56 percent of the time. (Up slightly from his output at Scranton; in 185 plate appearances, he had 13 HRs, 25 walks, 60 Ks - 54 percent.)

Last night, Jones' 2nd inning homer tied the game. His 3rd inning, bases-loaded walk (after an unsuccessful White Sox pitch challenge), seemed to unhinge the Chisox pitcher. In the 4th, his walk helped push us to a 10-1 lead. Honestly, who cares what happened later? The game was a joke. 

So, let's get to the central question: Is Spencer Jones what the Yankees need?

Spoiler alerts: 

a) I dunno.
b) It's too small a sample size to draw a conclusion.
c) At the July 31 trade deadline, we'll probably have bigger needs.

This we know: When Jones steps up, nobody runs to make a sandwich. 

Last night brought Jones' first HR at Yankee Stadium. You sense that, if all he does is hit mistakes, he could blast 30. (Last year, in the minors, he hit 35.) He can play CF, a slot that will almost surely be open next year. (Trent Grisham will probably sign elsewhere.) But do we need another HR-hitter? We already have at least four (Rice, Judge, Goldy, Giancarlo, when he returns.)

So...  we end up back with Joey Gallo. Why? Why? Why? In his final days - as a Yankee, at only age 28, Gallo was certifiably rancid. Over two years with us, he fanned 194 times in 501 plate appearances. His three true outcomes ran at 58 percent. He was booed at home. His fielding suffered. He was a human reflecting-pool algae outbreak. When he came up, it was Sandwich Time.

But but BUT... in his prime, at age 23, with Texas, Gallo was an All-Star. Twice! Over two seasons, he hit 80 HRs, with an OPS well over .800. The strikeouts didn't matter. In fact, Gallo had a reputation as a grinder, a guy who drove pitchers deep into the count, running up their pitch totals, and so what if he struck out: An out's an out, right? 

If Jones gets hot, over the next three weeks, while Grisham recovers from his tweaked gonad, he could easily become the most interesting Yankee. By Aug. 1, he could be massive trade bait. Or a massive disappointment. 

I say, what if he's for real? The guy can play CF. I say, pick a chocolate, any one in the box. Maybe it's not the cherry that you wanted. But is there such a thing as a shit-filled? Try the kid. How bad can it be?