Justin Machado has known Spencer Jones since well before he became a top prospect and even before he coached him as a freshman at La Costa Canyon High School in Carlsbad, Calif.
Machado’s son, Austin, is a minor leaguer in the Braves system and played in Little League with Jones when they were 8 years old.
“Pretty soon, he was taller than all the coaches,’’ the coach said by phone recently. “He was always bigger and stronger than everyone else. He just had to put it all together.”
It’s a process that’s still going on, as the Yankees enter the heart of an offseason in which they are trying to keep Cody Bellinger in pinstripes or perhaps add Kyle Tucker.