The reality of baseball players changes drastically in a very short time. Spencer Jones already knows it. In the spring it was taken for granted that we would see the New York Yankees’ No. 2 prospect in MLB this year.
And all indications are that his promotion to the Major Leagues will have to wait. The 23-year-old outfielder and left-handed hitter is on fire in the final stretch of the season for Somerset, the Double A team of the New York organization, but that did not earn him the call when the rosters were expanded.
Jones’ name has been heavily bandied about throughout the campaign, linked to trade rumors and with bets being high that he would be one of the Yankees’ big team call-ups on Sept. 1. But not only has that not happened, everything points to it not even being considered.
Jones is hitting .261/.339/.448 with a .787 OPS, 15 homers, 28 doubles, 74 RBIs and 24 stolen bases, and his lack of offensive explosion has not gone unnoticed by other organizations, who have declined to take him on as part of a return for some stars.
Like Jones, Jasson Dominguez was not called up on September 1, but there are differences in the status of each of them. The Dominican could be called up to the Major Leagues at any time during the last month of the regular season and would have the option to play in the postseason, but that is not the case for his teammate.
Even if he was rewarded for his strong performance over the past few days and called up to MLB before the end of the season, Jones would not be eligible to be part of the Yankees’ playoff roster for one simple reason: he is not on the 40-man roster and his name was not included before the roster expansion over the weekend. That is why he is not eligible to be part of the postseason rosters.
