Can Spencer Jones CRACK the Yankees’ MLB Roster? | Rumors and Analysis

Can Spencer Jones CRACK the Yankees’ MLB Roster? | Rumors and Analysis

What is up everyone? This is Fireside Yankees and I’m here with Alex and uh myself uh here to talk about some really interesting topics including Spencer Jones and whether he can make this team out of camp or not. Now Spencer Jones, the Yankees 2022 first round pick. Uh Brian Kman made a pretty interesting comment about him at the Covenant uh house sleepout event in regards to uh his standing on the major league roster. Uh he had a really big year this past year, 35 home runs in 116 games, but it came with a lot of strikeouts. We know there’s volatility with Jones. We’re going to break down his profile, talk about his 2025 season and what it can mean for 2026. All that and more right here on Fireside Yankees. Like, subscribe, turn on that notification bell, press those hype point things. Um I’m not sure how they work, but uh I I’m I’m aware that it does help us. So, uh if you can, that would really appreciate. I know it’s free. Uh and I I would only really ever kind of advertise for you guys to do things that would help us for free. Uh, so yeah, that’s really where we’re at with that. Um, Alex, before we get into everything, how you doing though today though, my man? Doing pretty good, man. And speaking of things that are free, if you uh listen to us on Spotify and Apple, make sure to drop a fivestar review for us there. Really, really appreciate the love. Helps us get the podcast out to more people. Um, and obviously we have a lot planned for the upcoming season. And right now, as we head into the winter months and free agency trades, it’s all, you know, at the top of the the wish list right now. However, we’ll probably have to wait a couple more weeks. We figured let’s dive into some more interesting storylines and kind of narratives that have been developing over the past few weeks if not months. And today we want to talk about Spencer Jones. Spencer Jones, what his role is going to be, what we project his role to be, what his value is via potential trade, um what his role could be as a starter, as a backup, as a fourth outfielder, how he kind of intertwines with Jason Dominguez. Those two players, if they’re on the roster, Ryan, it’s a position battle. Like only one of them can play. there’s not enough reps for both. So, I mean, who’s the odd man out? What happens to the odd man out? And what do the Yankees kind of visualize right now as their preference? And, you know, excited to kind of dive into that. But, I’ll let you give your first initial thoughts on Spencer Jones and what he brings to the table. Yeah. Again, so to break down Spencer Jones’s 2025 season, he played in DA and AAA. 49 of his 116 games came in double A. 67 of them came in AAA. He missed time with uh a core injury about a month of time in DA and still finished with the second most home runs in all of minor league baseball at 35. 153 WRC plus between the two levels. That’s being 53% better than the league average hitter. Just a 33.1% ground ball rate. That is a huge decrease from last year which was 42.3%. So an over 10% decrease in ground ball rate, a near 10% increase in fly ball rate and the same exact line drive rate at 28% as he had last year. So, um, the big improvements come in his game power. His game power showed way more this year than we’ve ever seen. He hit just 17 home runs in 2024. He had 16 home runs in 49 games before moving up to AAA. So, this guy was on a complete and different level from the home run department. But, the contact rates got worse for a third straight year. So, that is a big concern when we talk about Spencer Jones. And I I think the first thing that comes to mind for you with Spencer Jones is risk, volatility, those kinds of words where um you know that there’s monumental upside here, but you also understand that uh the floor here is a completely unusable big league hitter. And and it’s not even the floor, it’s like the 20th, 30th percentile outcome could be an unusable big league hitter just based on how much he swings and misses. And Alex, I think when we talk about Spencer Joseph, I want I’m starting off the bad because I think the there it is important to note that there are some big flaws in his game. I think the swing decisions need to get better, too. I’m I’m not sure he’s going to walk a lot in the big leagues if he doesn’t uh change his swing decisions. I think he needs time in in the minor leagues before he gets to the major leagues. I think that is where I sit with Spencer Jones, but um I think this year was an overall thumbs up. Not two thumbs up, not a monumental leap, but but one thumbs up. He he kind of regained his uh top 100 caliber prospect status. He didn’t fully regain what he was in 2023 in terms of uh his status and his allore and his value on the trade market, but it was a thumbs up. It was a good year for Spencer Jones. Alex, what was your takeaway from this 2025 season? How much of a positive was it? If you were to, I guess, grade it on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you grade a season? What were the pros? What were the cons for you? I mean, listen, coming off 2024 where he played 122 games in DA, had a 128 WRC plus, but a 36.8% 28% strikeout rate, which you know, by the way, did not get that much better. Um, as he kind of rose to AAA this past year. I I’d give it an 8 out of 10. And the reason I say that is because we saw him completely obliterate DoubleA. Like he he went he was hitting 259 with a 336 OBP, 452 slugging, had 17 homers in 2024. And then he plays 49 games in DA this past year and hit 16 homers with 32 RBI’s, stole 10 bags, you know, 274 batting average, 389 OBP, and a 594 slugging rate. Like the power suddenly translated. It went from like, okay, like he’s got it, but he’s not translating. Now it’s actually showing up um in real life situations. He went on that one stretch where he’s hitting home runs like every single day, sometimes multiple. And then he goes to Triple A, plays 67 games, hits 19 homers with 48 RBI, steals 19 bags, you know, hits 274 again. So, you know, he did it at both levels. Uh, the one concern is the strikeout rate, a 33.7% strikeout rate at TW in uh in DA and then a 36.6% in AAA. Listen, like so Ryan, let me let me tell you this. If he strikes out at a 35% clip, but he hits 35 home runs for the Yankees, no one’s going to bat an eye. No one’s going to care. No one’s going to think twice about it. You get 35 homers, 80 plus RBI’s, and you know, really good defense in center field, and a good athlete, good base runner. that’s his baseline. We are we are we are applauding, you know, that type of production. It’s a high strikeout rate. Yeah. But 35 homers and great defense and good base running, like that’s that’s extremely valuable for a young player. Um I would say that that’s something that we would easily sign up for on day one. Um now, is that what we’re going to get on day one? Probably not. We’re probably going to get more like 20, you know, 20 plus home runs. This is a full season. You know, 20 20 plus home runs. Um you’re probably going to get like a 220 batting average. you’re probably didn’t get like a maybe a 33% um base percentage, you know, maybe maybe he’s like slightly above league average because of the power, but he’s going to strike out 35 plus% of the time. Like that’s probably what we get and we’re hoping to get to what he’s doing in the minors right now, maybe two years from now. So, you know, the question is how long is it going to take? Can he actually make, you know, that that level of progress? And I know people will compare him to Aaron Judges. Oh, he’s the lefty Aaron Judge. You know, when when Judge was a a rookie back in 2017, he had a 30.7% strikeout rate, right? That’s pretty high, but it’s not as high as Spencer Jones is right now. And obviously, Judge is a generational talent. Hit 52 home runs in his first season. We’re not expecting that from Spencer Jones. And I think that’s where we have to say, is it all bells and whistles? Is there legitimate upside to be tapped into? Can he get to a level where he’s not ever probably going to be Aaron Judge, but can he get to a level where he’s like the best version of Joey Gallow? that we can we can, you know, we can we can rationalize that. We can justify that. But he still has a long way to go. Um, you know, Ryan, if you were if you were Spencer Jones, what would you be doing right now to fix what your problems are and the whiffs and the strikeouts? Like that is those are the two things. If those things come down, if he if he starts to get better in those two categories, there is a star under underneath that that raw talent. It’s just a matter of refining it. Yeah. So, um, when it comes to Spencer Jones, I think it’s just better swing decisions. I don’t even think you have to try and actively like make really active and potentially detrimental swing changes to actively cut down the strikeout rate. I think making better swing decisions results in better strikeout rates because um if you break it down, I mean his uh chase rate this past season was in the 13th percent level. That’s not good. That’s really really bad. Um his uh Seagar score, which is a plate disciplined mattric basically takes your um swings in zone and swings out of zone. It gives you a grade based on those swings. Um, it gives you a positive for swinging at pitches you can hit. Um, and it gives you a negative for swinging at pitches you can’t hit. And it also gives you a negative for not swinging at pitches you can hit. So, I think it’s a really good metric that doesn’t just say, “Hey, if you don’t swing, you’re going to grade out really well here. If you do swing a lot, you’re not going to grade out well.” It it’s a pretty dynamic stat. He’s in the 37th percentile on that metric. So, I think the issue is very clearly here. He’s swinging too much out of zone. He doesn’t take a lot of pitches he shouldn’t take. Um he swings at a good amount of pitches he needs to ambush, but he doesn’t seem to read spin well enough to be a plus plate disciplined guy. And if you swing at better pitches to hit, you’re going to swing at pitches that have a lower expected whiff rate. This is very, this sounds very convoluted and complicated. The most simple way to put this is when you swing at bad pitches, you’re more likely to swing and miss, or you’re more likely to not hit it the way you want to hit it. In Jones’s case, usually it’s a swing and a miss. Um when you swing at pitches you can hit, you can handle, you’re going to make contact. And for Jones, I don’t think it’s bad for him to be someone who’s not super patient, but more patient than he is aggressive. Uh because he has the power to get any really any pitch he needs to hit. You get three strikes for a reason. If he doesn’t, if he takes the first one, if he fouls off the second one, and then hits the third one, it’s the same thing as hitting on the first pitch. So, I think Jones needs to use his three strikes more effectively. Um that’s something I took from watching him at times in TripleA. when things got bad, that’s where it got bad. It was with the chases. So again, it’s it’s swinging at good pitches to hit Alex because if he’s swinging at his pitch and he’s and he’s limiting the chases and increasing the walks, then yes, this is someone who can strike out under 35% of the time, maybe closer to that 30% mark where if Spencer Jones is striking out 30% of the time, I think he will be a very productive big league hitter. Um because he has enough power to do it, especially if it’s coming with walks. If you’re walking 10% of the time, striking out 30% of the time, and you’re hitting 20 plus home runs a year, there’s a good chance you’re an above average hitter, if you have the kind of power Spencer Jones has, where you expect the average to be good. He hits the ball super hard, so when he hits the ball, you expect a high hit probability on most of his batted balls. Again, Alex, it’s a matter of chases. That’s where I think it comes down to. I think whiffs might not even be the number one issue at this point, right? Yeah. So he’s just chasing bad pitches and you know that just comes with more refinement seeing more you know professional like MLB level pitchers and you know maybe just spending a lot of time in the cages. I know the Yankees have like I don’t know what their systems look like in the minors but once he gets to the majors the systems they have available to him could be the difference. You know just realistic pitches over over repetition repetition um and seeing things until he until it’s you know mental fortitude. It’s just kind of like um you know mental math for him. Um I do think that there is a world where he fixes those issues to a degree. Even a 20% increase in efficiency, you’re talking about a different player. You’re talking about, you know, a really really solid MLB uh big leager. But you know, Ryan, let’s talk about his fit in the outfield this year. This is a chance for him this this uh spring training. He could win a job. And I I do genuinely believe that Jason Dominguez needs to be worried about his job right now. I do think that I mean Cashman said it to your face. They had two outfield vacancies. They filled one with Trent Gisham. They’re trying to bring back Bellinger or signed Kyle Tucker. We’ll find out what they do. But they don’t view Jason Dominguez as a starter right now. That means he’s the fourth outfielder. And Spencer Jones is he’s knocking on the door. He’s ready to make that elevation. He’s he’s trying to get to the majors. He’s ready for it. And the Yankees, you know, you put Spencer Jones in the outfield, you can trust he’s going to give you good defense. Jason Dominguez right now, you can’t trust him defensively. he has to get significantly better. He’s currently in the in I think the in the Dominican League down um down south and he’s have some some issues offensively. Um I think he’s hitting like 174. So like there you know obviously it’s the Dominican League. No one really cares that much but is it does matter to some of these teams and his progression throughout the offseason. You know what do you think happens right now in terms of that position battle between Dominguez and Spencer Jones? I don’t think that it’s crazy to think that Jones could win that that that spot and he could be the fourth outfielder. Um especially if he lights it up in spring training and shows good defensive measurements. I don’t see why the Yankees would stop him from winning that job. Yeah. So, um, the first thing I look at with that comment is, yes, it’s very notable that general manager Brian Casham did not name Jason Mink as a starting left fielder when his competition is someone who’s never played above the AAA level and who I know people inside the Yankee organization believe, yeah, he needs to cut down the strikeouts before he gets to the big leagues. Uh, that is not a public only thing. That is a private internal uh, perception of him as well. They they are fully aware of the strikeout issues. They know it has to get better. I don’t think they view him as a big leager on, you know, April 1st or whatever it is. Jason Dominguez being in that competition is pretty crazy to me. Um I I think it’s I think it’s pretty telling of where they view the player. Um it’s telling of the fact they didn’t guarantee him a job because essentially in spring training last year, he was guaranteed a job. Now granted, there wasn’t there wasn’t a AAA player who would compete with him, but Trent Gisham was on the major league roster. Granted, Trent Gisham was not a a big-time player at all and he no one expected the breakout he had, but like I would say projections would view Trent Gisham and Spencer Jones or Trent Gisham going into 2025 and Spencer Jones going into 2026 as similarish players. Um Jones obviously way more upside, but I just I I I think it’s stunning. I do think it’s stunning. I think it’s very fascinating. And you know, Alex, I’ve covered it uh throughout most of the offseason, which has been a very young very slow grind this off seasonason, but um I’ve said it time and time again. The Yankees have had interest in trading him. I don’t view him as a safe player on this roster. I’ve said time anytime someone asks me what’s a hot take you have for the offseason, what is something you if you had to give one prediction, what would it be? I say Jason Mingz gets traded. Every every time I talk to people inside the Yankee organization um about Jason, it’s not a complaint about his work ethic. He’s well regarded as a as a as a hardworking guy. He’s a smart guy. He wants it. I just don’t get the sense that they view him as a long-term like core piece because of the defense, because of what they have in the outfield already, because he can’t go slide over to play right field, which is a very easy right field position compared to left field and center for the Yankee Stadium. Um, and more importantly, because there’s so much there’s so much available on the market. Bellinger and Tucker are out there. Jones is in the system who can at least present some competition. Um they they had last year obviously Gisham break out and take Dominguez’s job. Stan came back but before Stan came back Ben Rice was the DH and won that job pretty handedly. So every time Dominguez has had an opportunity to compete. He’s lost. Not that he’s been awful but he’s lost the job. He’s never won the job. 24. I know that people are going to say well and I and I believe this too. I believe that he deserved to beat out Verdugo but in hindsight no he didn’t. No. The glove was as bad as we thought it as as it looked then. He did not deserve to beat Verdugo for the job. He may have not deserved to beat Gisham for the job. So it all ties back to core pieces and people are going to say well Vulpi he you know they look at Vulpy a certain way. Compare the other shorts stops on the roster to Vulpi since 2023. And then compare the outfielders on the roster to Dominguez. The Yankees have always been able to have outfield talent over the last two or three years. That has been the reason why Dominguez doesn’t keep playing. I wonder if that affects Jones. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. But um it it doesn’t feel like Spencer Jones beating Jason Mingz is an impossibility for opening day. I wouldn’t consider it the likely possibility or likely outcome, but it’s not ruled out. That is pretty interesting. Yeah, it isn’t ruled out by any means. And I don’t see why it should be. I look, Jason’s 22 years old. He’s a switch hitter right now. Bad defense. Doesn’t hit, you know, right-handed. Well, I just uh you know, looking at his value, don’t see why he’s like untouchable. Um, now I I do want to give him time to to refine things, but you know, if Jones has a great spring training, you know, we’ll see how that happens. I mean, we talked about the other day, what do we project? How many games do we project Jones to play? I think you said closer to 100. I said 50. You said closer to 100. So, like there is there is a world where Spencer Jones makes a pretty sizable impact for the Yankees this upcoming season. And it’s in their best interest, by the way, for him to do so because Trisham’s here for one year, right? You want to know that you either have Jones or Dominguez ready to step into a starting role in 2027. I think that’s kind of the MMO right now. Give them one more year. Jason’s not ready. Not even I I think that’s objectively true. He’s just not ready. Um I think that Jones is not ready. He has never played an MLB inning before. this inning could be or rather this upcoming season Ryan like I see this the whole season’s the position battle it’s not just spring training this whole season will be the position battle to to decide who is the starter in 2027 what do you think about that narrative so um for Spencer Jones I think it comes down to 2026 I mean it’s really hard to know who will or won’t be a starter um without the the context of knowing what happens in 2026 because off seasons uh player performance uh injuries trades there’s so many different variables that go into all of this. Um, I do think with Spencer Jones, the the thing that helps him is the outfield versatility. The Yankees are having him try out for the left field job for now until they either a add an outfielder or b don’t and then we all kind of get upset at the fact they didn’t. Um, they can have him play center field, they can have him play right field. He can play all three outfield positions. That’ll keep him in conversations. Jason can’t. That is that is a big big limiting factor here. Jason cannot play center field. he might not be able to play left field. Like yes, the Yankees put him in left field, but you know what I mean? Like it’s it’s it’s not great. It’s not a good watch. Um and and again, unlike the other prospects, again, you want to compare it to Wells, Vulpi, Rice, position players who’ve gotten extended playing time with the Yankees over the last two or three years. Vulpi, people are going to disagree. I I know that this past year was a bad defensive season, but throughout his major league career is a plus defensive shortstop. Wells throughout his major league career is a plus defensive catcher. Rice is not a plus defensive first baseman, but his defensive metrics at first are significantly better than Dominguez is in left field. And more importantly, Ben Rice is a really damn good hitter. Ben Rice is that good offensively. By the way, down the stretch defensively, yes, but even if he even if he’s a below average defender, like he’s such a good hitter, you cannot take him out of the lineup. Jason Dominguez Yeah, Jason Dominguez doesn’t fall into the outlier hitter category and he’s clearly the worst defender of this group. Jones has a chance to be I think Jones is going to be a better defensive player than Ben Rice and it’s not going to be close. Um the question is can he be better than Vulpi or Wells. I think Wells will always be the best defensive player of that group because he’s a catcher and it’s very hard to be better than a good defensive catcher. But I do think Jones can have an outside shot of being a better defensive player adjusting for position as well than Vulpi. And in that scenario, you look at the WRC plus numbers that Vulpi’s put up or the OPS numbers that Vulpi’s put up and suddenly it’s not that hard to imagine Spencer Jones playing in center field every single day. You get what I’m saying? Um, so that is, I guess, will be what’ll be the interesting thing for Jones. How good are you defensively and on the bases? I think he’s good defensively. I think he’s good on the bases. Um, is he going to be like, is that going to be enough for him to keep getting reps? And what does the roster look like around him? Is Kyle Tucker in left field? Because if Kyle Tucker’s in left field, makes a lot easier to put Jones in center field in 2027. Is uh McMahon still at third base in 2027? Cuz if that’s the case, kind of hard to run a lineup where you’ve got a bottom of the order that includes Jones, McMahon, and Vulpi. and and and if Wells doesn’t progress, then you have Wells in that group as well. That’ll be hard to stomach. So, in in an interesting, it’s kind of interesting, Alex. They need to make sure certain they need to make sure the bottom of the order is better. They need to get Kyle Tucker, and they need to uh hope that Spencer Jones progresses with his swing decisions. Those are the three things that need to occur for Spencer Jones to be a full-time Yankee, I think, at any point, at least as a full-time starter in 2027, because you need to have enough offense. You cannot punt so that many positions offensively. you punted short stop, you punt at third base. Um, you might, you know, punting center field on top of that kind of tough to do, you know. Yeah, you really can’t punt it. You need to have, you know, some stability there. But, you know, Cashman also said the bottom half of the order, he wants it to be a little bit more contactentric and less strikeouts. So, you know, if you put Spencer Jones in center field or you you have him as the fourth outfielder, where would you put him in the lineup? I think that’s an interesting question. Um, that’s he’s probably, you know, coming in as as a reserve, giving a guy a day off, you know, maybe dhing for Stan who might need some time off here and there. Like, where would you have Spencer Jones batting? I mean, he’d have to hit ninth. And and I guess so, I also want to point out that that cashman quote also doesn’t bode well for Jones, at least for 26, right? I I I I want to clarify. I actually do not get the impression that the Yankees are going to roll with any of their internal options in left field. I I am strong under the belief they’ll get one right for sure because it would be really weird to say that and then add Spencer Jones to the bottom of your lineup and be like, “Hey, yeah, we want to get more contact oriented. Here’s the potential the guy who might strike out the most in our lineup in the bottom.” And I think with the internal uh kind of conversation about like strikeout rates, we’ve talked about this before. It’s I think a lot of it will be internal development. I think that they strongly believe that McMahon can strike out less, that Vulpi can strike out less, that Wells can strike out less, and that’ll be part of this as well. Um, but it I think you know with Spencer Jones where I’d hit him and I’m very convoluted answer, sorry. Um, I would hit him I think ninth. It has to be ninth. He is the guy who has the least amount of MLB experience. He’s the guy who I think pretty confident projects to be the worst hitter of that nineman group. You could make the argument he’s he he’d be a better hitter than Vulpi, but I mean I will also say with with Spencer Jones, he could also again strike out 38% of the time and then have a 500 OPS. like I I I think people or I think Yankee fans um not just Yankee fans but people in general um they are very much not they they don’t learn from prospects I think um they don’t look at a prospect like they they see the shiny new toy and they go oh this guy’s clearly going to be good and he’s obviously better than this other guy that I’m tired of. Um you all remember thinking Anthony Vulpi was going to be really good and it doesn’t serve you well to hide from it. It serves you well to admit that, wear that. I thought the same thing. And yeah, and learn that, hey, even the best prospect in your system could be not what you hope he is. And Ben Rice in the complete opposite side of things, the guy you didn’t know about until he was 25 years old can become a really big part of your team. So, you know, with Spencer Jones, big big talent, tons of hype. He could stink. He could also be really good. We’ll see. But I I don’t want to have the Yankees roll the dice or rely on him. If you don’t want the Yankees to add Tucker or Ballinger because of Jones, I think you’re crazy. Um if you don’t want the Yankees to make improvements because Jones exists, I think that’s crazy. Um I’m more comfortable blocking him out of a job than I am letting him start. That is where I’m at. I’m more confident with like, oh yeah, I just essentially signed Tucker to make it so I only have one available outfield spot for the next half decade or decade plus. Um and it is what it is. I’m okay with that. I’m more than cool with that. Alex, I think that’s a fine plan as well cuz it gives you a full year to identify, can this guy improve in the ways we need him to? Can Jason Dominguez improve defensively? Can Spencer Jones get his strikeout rates and in in contact rates up or down? And you know, that’s kind of the uh cushion the Yankees need. And I think that’s what Cashman really was trying to say is like we’re going to use 2026 as an evaluation year for the fourth outfield spot to see if someone could be a starter. Um, you know, that’s kind of where I I look at this situation right now and think to myself, that’s a decent move, but that also coincides with going out and getting Tucker or bringing back Bellinger. So, we have to know one of those two guys is is in the room um for us to feel confident with that game plan. And and listen, like, yeah, I am excited to see Spencer Jones, though. We’ve been talking about him for a very long time. He’s one of the young guys that we identified when we were talking about Ben Rice a couple years ago. If you’ve been a fan of fireside fireside Yankees and Fireside Giants, fireside Yankees in this instance, you know that Ryan and I were talking about Ben Rice before anybody knew who he was. And now he’s one of the best up andcoming offensive players in the sport. Not just on the Yankees, but in the sport. So, we we tend to know where guys um are going to land. You know, we’ve had our misses, don’t don’t get us wrong, but we’re pretty good on the prospect side. And Spencer Jones, if he unlocks that one, that one element, if he gets to the majors and he gets access to those types of insights, those types of coaches, those types of uh machines, and he takes those steps forward, I mean, you saw Ben Rice at a 27% strikeout rate in his first 50 games in the majors. Of course, that was historically not the case in the minors. Um, Spencer Jones probably is going to need a couple years. Like, it’s not going to be a one-year fix. That’s why I think 2026 is such a good opportunity for the Yankees to work really hard with him in that clubhouse, in those in those back rooms to refine the problems he’s currently facing. Um because they can get a hands-on experience with fixing him before 2027 rolls around. So, I do think this does bode well for his future. Again, it’s Trent Gresham’s on a one-year deal. Uh Spencer Jones can play center field and the other two outfield positions. There is enough the defense will keep Spencer Jones in the conversation. The question is what the offense can become. Um the question is also what the Yankees value him as. Uh if the Yankees truly believe he’s a major leager, we’ll get to know that based on their actions. Words mean only so much, Alex. Only do they only mean so much. One day uh Caleb Durban’s your starting second baseman. The next day he’s traded for Deon Williams. One day you fully strongly believe in Gio Roelle as your shortstop. the next week he’s just been traded for Josh Donaldson who you who you believe is a better player than than J Relle. So things change like that and I and I do wonder how this offseason plays out. The winter meetings is about I think 10 days away or excuse me eight or nine days away. Um so it’ll be a very interesting uh turn of events, Alex, as we start to see the Yankees offseason plan unfold. I again believe it’s outfielder, starting pitcher, bullpen. I think that is where they’re going to attack the market. uh whether it’s acquiring a top-of-the-line guy for the rotation, whether it’s acquiring a top of the out market outfielder, whether it’s acquiring big uh well-established names in the bullpen or going for projects, whatever it may be, they’re going to have to make concessions somewhere. Every single offseason, the Yankees go out there and have multiple needs, and they make concessions in some areas. Uh whether it was this past year, I thought they made concessions in the infield by not acquiring a set in stone infielder. I think that was bad. They made concessions at first base. They didn’t go after a big one. They went after Paul Goldmith. They did not go after Christian Walker. That actually worked out in their favor. They went all in on the rotation and they went all in on run to prevention. Interesting to see how they do things this year. Alex, any final thoughts on Spencer Jones and kind of how this could unfold or how you believe this uh offseason will out Oh my gosh. How you believe this off seasonason can affect his playing time and finally what you expect out of him in 2026. I mean, listen, spring training is going to be the tell all um for Spencer Jones and really what his role is going to be. If he kicks ass, if he plays good defense, hit some home runs, you know, shows improvement, I bet he’s working his butt off right now, uh I I would s I would say that there’s a real chance that he gets some decent playing time next season. And if he doesn’t, Ryan, there’s a very good chance they try to trade him, you know, like while his value is still high. You don’t want to bury him and then watch his value deteriorate. That’s that’s where the Yankees are in this juncture. And you talked about learning from past mistakes. Let’s let’s identify the one that we have right in front of us. Spencer Jones’s value is is high right now coming off a really good minor league season. If they bury him, if they let if they squander his confidence and his spirit and his numbers start to regress, his trade value is going to become nothing. It’s going to be it’s not nothing, but it’s going to catastrophically drop. And the the Yankees can’t afford for that right now. Um same thing with Dominguez. Like they’re they’re slowly watching him. Oswwell PZA himself into the abyss, you know, with with all of the regressing, you know, kind of situations. And in fact, they don’t view him as a starter and he’s just had a whole year with the Yankees. Like they’re they are the Yankees are really good at at kind of um mitigating their own value to a degree. Like their prospects, they hug their prospects sometimes a little bit too long. Um, Pasa should have been traded years ago before they ever even moved them to the Angels where they had him playing like first base and stuff like you know there there is um situations with the Yankees where like they hold on a bit too long instead of selling high. They have an opportunity to fix that in correct course. Jones they need to either play or sell this off season um in my opinion and Dominguez like he needs to improve defensively significantly or they need to consider selling as well. So like one of those two guys I do view as trade bait. I just don’t know which one it’s going to be. That’s up to the position battle. Yeah. Again, I mean, I think it’s a matter of picking direction. I always think that we could disagree with the direction you take sometimes, but as long as you’re taking a direction, um it is at least a concrete uh results, not just a resultsoriented, but a processoriented path. The Yankees need to figure out what they feel about Spencer Jones and Jason Mingz. And if they’ve already made their minds up, act on it. Um now, I don’t if they like Jones and Dominguez, I don’t want them to act on it to the point of not adding an outfielder. I would like them to still add one. Um, but if you like the player, then that means the market likes the player, too. So, maybe you can consider trading them for a big piece. If you don’t like them, you’ve got to act on that as well. So, act on your feelings, act actions, actions, and actions. That will that is what will dictate how I think the world, the market, uh the fan base, whatever it may be, how they view uh those two players. And uh you’ve got to pick a direction. So, if you guys enjoyed this video and you guys have some thoughts on Spencer Jones, number one, make sure you comment and let us know what you think about Spencer Jones and uh contribute into the conversation. And then secondly, if you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you like, subscribe, and turn on that notification bell. Again, those hype points, that would help as well. We really appreciate all the support you guys have given us. Um, furthermore, you guys can check out our website, empireportsmedia.com, for in coverage on all of your favorite New York sports teams, whether that’s uh the Yankees, the Giants, the Knicks, uh, all those amazing New York sports teams. And finally, make sure to check out our social media pages at Fireside Yankees on Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, Facebook, and of course this YouTube page. If this was a lot for you to kind of digest in one, links to everything will be in the description. So, just check our description box. You’ll be able to kind of click and go to different pages that are affiliated with us and that we have. Uh, and we appreciate you guys so much. Have a great rest of your day and we’ll see you guys in the next one. Peace out.

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Intro: (00:00)
2025 Season Breakdown (02:05)
What Spencer Jones Needs To Improve (07:30)
Dominguez vs Jones? (11:20)
Outro: (29:42)