Yankees’ Spencer Jones does his homework, then rewarded with 443-foot, 1st career homer
· Yahoo Sports
CLEVELAND — Before the Yankees headed outside for the team stretch and batting practice Tuesday afternoon, second baseman Jazz Chisholm relaxed in a chair in front of his locker looking down at his phone during a FaceTime call.
Across the clubhouse at a corner locker, rookie outfielder Spencer Jones had his head buried in an iPad studying video on Tuesday night’s Guardians starting pitcher, Slade Cecconi.
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This is a task in and of itself because the 6-foot-5 right-hander throws six pitches to left-handed hitters — four-seamers, cutters, curves, sinkers, sweepers and changeups.
“I’m watching his most-recent starts against lefties,” Jones told NJ.com before a 3-2 Yankees victory. “I like to see the motion, the way that they release the baseball, those kind of things to kind of sync myself up.”
Despite Jones saying “it’s all instincts, baby!” when he’s in the batter’s box, the prepping worked in the first at-bat of his 14th big-league game.
Batting in the second inning after Jazz Chisholm worked a leadoff walk, Jones was thrown a 1-0 cutter that was above the knees and right down Broadway.
He capitalized on the mistake pitch, hitting a line shot to center that carried over the wall for an impressive 443-foot home run.
Career homer No. 1 for the 6-foot-7 slugger came on his 36th plate appearance.
His next time up, Jones grounded a single to center for a two-hit game.
“I’ve felt good up there,” said Jones, who finished the evening 2-for-4 with a near-second homer on a flyball to the center-field warning track.
Jones has looked better at the plate since his second call-up last Friday as a replacement for three-time MVP right fielder Aaron Judge, who is on the injured list with a fractured rib.
In his first four games back, Jones is 6-for-12, the stretch beginning with a career-best 3-for-3 last Friday night in a Yankees loss to the Red Sox. That pushed his season average to .278 with a homer and five RBI counting his first big-league stint, which ran from May 8 to May 22.
“I think he’s done well,” manager Aaron Boone said on Monday. “Before (last Friday) he obviously didn’t get a ton of results, but I felt like he was given quality at-bats. Then his first game back the other day, I thought he had three quality at-bats in his first start. He gets three hits where he kind of finds holes, but the at bats there I thought were really good, and that’s good to see.
“If he has those level of at-bats, it gives him a chance to impact the ball like he’s capable of.”
The 2022 first-round draft pick showed off his power to all fields at every level in the minors, and now he has a first big-league home run.
“The pitchers here obviously are really good,” Jones said. “For me, it’s just like being able to control my movements in the box. When I got my first taste of it, I was facing a lot of really good pitchers. It was a lot of very well executed pitches.
“In my mind, when I was sitting back down, I was like, ‘How do I strengthen my approach? How do I strengthen the things that I can do to mitigate the velocity, the change of velocity, the movements, those kinds of things. How do I put myself in a better position to see the baseball physically and mentally to be able to make a difference.’
“That’s been the main thing I’m focusing on.”
Jones’ future with the Yankees this season is unclear. The way it looks now, he’ll be a strong candidate to be optioned back to Triple-A in the next week or so with outfielder Jasson Dominguez and designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton getting close to returning from injuries. But another injury or maybe a good week of hitting could change whatever tentative plans are in the works.
“I don’t try to get too far ahead of myself when it comes to those things,” Jones said. “I’m focused on the next game, and then go from there.”
Now that Jones has a first homer out of the way, he’s looking forward to another career first.
He wants to do what he’s seen Judge do on video during games at Yankee Stadium, reach over the eight-foot-high, right-field wall to turn homers into outs.
“I’m visualizing!” he said. “I think you have to trust your athleticism and be able to jump at any point. I’ve got some catches like that under my belt in the minors. I don’t know if they were caught on camera, but I’ve got a couple.”
Jones is a natural center fielder, but he’s only made two of his first 12 starts there as a big leaguer. He’s made six in right field and four at DH.
“Hey, I’m an outfielder,” Jones said. “That’s how I view it. I’m an outfielder. I’ve been doing reps of the corner spots all year in the minor leagues and I’ve got a lot of trust wherever I’m playing out there.”
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