Brendan Jones said he was working Tuesday night at a baseball training facility near Nashville when he got the word.
“Through a Jeff Passan, ESPN notification on my phone. I was at work and kind of saw it pop up,” he said. “I said ‘What?’ Did I just get traded?”
Jones, who was a Futures League All-Star Game participant with the Pittsfield Suns back in 2021, was traded Tuesday. The former Kansas State outfielder was one of four prospects traded by the New York Yankees to the Miami Marlins, with left-handed pitcher Ryan Weathers going back to New York.
“A minute later, I get a call from our director of minor league development for the Yankees, and he was like ‘Was I able to beat you to the Twitter post or no?” Jones said, in a phone interview with The Eagle. “I said, no I just saw it a minute ago. That was kind of how I found out.”
Jones and Dillon Lewis were two outfielders in the trade, along with infielders Dylan Jasso and Juan Matheus.
Former Pittsfield Suns All-Star Brendan Jones, here taking a swing for the New York Yankees’ Class AA team in Somerset, N.J., is now a member of the Miami Marlins after a five-player trade on Tuesday.
SOMERSET PATRIOTS PHOTO
In just his second season in professional baseball, Jones moved from Class A Hudson Valley in the South Atlantic League to Class AA Somerset in the Eastern League. At Somerset, he hit .250. So far, his career batting average is .249, but he was considered the fastest prospect in the Yankees organization. He stole 69 bases last year and was caught only nine times. Jones reportedly graded 65 in speed on the Major League Baseball scouting scale. That translates to MLB All-Star caliber speed.
“From everyone I talked to and everything I heard, I definitely think its a good thing. To be traded and for an organization to value you enough to trade for you, I’m definitely excited about that,” Jones said. “There should be some more opportunity to break into the big leagues and get the opportunity in the big leagues.
“I’m pretty excited about that.”
Jones is one of three members of the 2021 Pittsfield Suns to be drafted. He was, however, the second one of the trio traded.
When Brendan Jones came to play in the Futures League, he had just graduated high school. Now, four years later, he’s at Class AA for the Yankees, and he has his eyes on the stadium in The Bronx.
Pitcher David Hagaman, who was drafted in the fourth round in 2021 by Texas, was traded to Arizona at the 2025 deadline Hagaman was one of three prospects sent to Arizona for pitcher Merrill Kelly.
The other former Suns player from that draft is catcher Jackson Appel, who was taken in the ninth round by the Chicago White Sox. He spent last year at Class A Winston-Salem.
And it is possible that Jones could be a Marlins teammate with another former Sun. Mark Coley II, who hit .327 with seven home runs and 29 runs batted in for the 2019 Suns, was a 17th-round pick of the Marlins in 2023. Coley, another Futures League All-Star, finished last season at Pensacola of the Class AA Southern League.
The newest Marlins prospect hasn’t yet heard if he’ll be invited to Major League camp in mid-February or go to camp with the rest of the minor league prospects at the end of the month.
The 2021 Pittsfield Suns made it to the Futures League championship series. Three players who helped propel the Suns were taken in the MLB Draft this week.
Miami’s spring training home is Jupiter, Fla., which is on the east coast of the Sunshine State. The Yankees trained in Tampa, on the Gulf Coast side.
Jones was the No. 13 prospect in the Yankees organization at the time of the trade, and he is now the No. 15 prospect in the Marlins organization. There are five outfielders ahead of Jones on the list but four of them have yet to leave the Class A level. The only prospect ahead of him on the list and in the organization is Kemp Alderman, the No. 11 prospect who played last year at Class AAA Jacksonville.
“I haven’t been around yet or haven’t got a great chance yet to get a feel for the org. Obviously, it’s the same game, but a different team,” Jones said. “I’m just going to try and keep doing what I’ve been doing and what’s worked for me. Hopefully, that’ll keep me progressing and hopefully getting a shot soon.”