NEW YORK — New York Yankees fans will be clamoring for the club to promote hot-hitting prospect Spencer Jones in the wake of star Aaron Judge heading to the 10-day injured list with a right flexor strain.
It almost surely won’t happen.
Or at least it won’t anytime soon.
“Haven’t even gone there yet,” manager Aaron Boone said when asked if promoting Jones was a possibility following a 9-4 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies at Yankee Stadium, which Judge sat out.
While the Yankees have been thrilled with Jones’ recent hot streak, he’s missed the last two games with back spasms at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. They’re not going to rush the 24-year-old, who was their first-round pick out of Vanderbilt in 2022.
Plus, the Yankees surely want Jones to continue playing every day to continue his development. He would get that opportunity at Triple A. The Yankees surely wouldn’t start him regularly over current starters Jasson Domínguez, Trent Grisham or Cody Bellinger. The Yankees will need a fourth outfielder.
Also, Jones isn’t on the Yankees’ 40-man roster, and doesn’t need to go on it to be protected from the Rule 5 draft until this offseason. Yes, the Yankees could make room for him on the roster by designating someone for assignment or by putting Clarke Schmidt (Tommy John surgery) on the 60-day IL. But they may want roster flexibility with Thursday’s trade deadline approaching.
Most likely, the Yankees will call up either former top prospect Everson Pereira or Bryan De La Cruz, righty-hitting outfielders who are on the 40-man roster. Pereira, 24, can play all three outfield spots and has hit 19 homers with a .869 OPS and lots of strikeouts (29.7 percent). The 28-year-old De La Cruz spent 16 games in the majors with the Atlanta Braves this season before latching on with the Yankees and posting a .769 OPS with nine homers at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Jones has dominated since getting promoted from Double-A Somerset on June 27, hitting .400 with 13 home runs, including a three-homer game Thursday, in 19 games. But he still strikes out a ton, running a 25.5-percent strikeout rate at Triple A while fanning 33.7 percent of the time at Double A this season.
Spencer Jones has THREE homers in 5 innings today. He’s got 13 in 19 Triple-A games 😳 pic.twitter.com/ThGIsV0HsG
— MLB (@MLB) July 24, 2025
It seems highly unlikely that the Yankees will trade Jones prior to the deadline, especially considering his recent surge. He may have put himself in the Yankees’ category of almost-untouchable prospects, alongside 20-year-old shortstop George Lombard Jr. and 22-year-old right-hander Carlos Lagrange.
The Yankees hope that Judge will be ready to DH once his 10-day IL stint is over, and that he’ll be able to return to the outfield approximately two weeks after. Boone said the plan was for Judge not to throw for between 10-14 days, and then he would begin a throwing program.
Judge will land on the IL because he suffered a flexor strain on a throw in Tuesday’s win over the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre. He DH-ed on Wednesday, the Yankees were off on Thursday, and on Friday, Judge wasn’t able to throw the ball from the outfield. Judge went for extensive testing on his elbow Saturday morning, and the results showed the flexor strain but no damage to his ulnar collateral ligament, which may have required Tommy John surgery and an up to eight-month absence.
The Giancarlo Stanton experiment
Boone said that the Yankees began speaking with Stanton about preparing himself in case he needs to return to the outfield. Stanton, often battling injuries, hasn’t played the outfield since 2023. Stanton also didn’t debut this season until June 16 due to tennis elbow in both of his elbows.
“G will probably start to get some work out there just to see if it needs to be an option,” Boone said.
Boone said Stanton likely wouldn’t be ready to return to the outfield before Judge’s 10-day IL window is up. It seems unlikely that Stanton would end up playing the outfield in games unless there was an emergency.
Tackling the deadline
Judge said he expects the Yankees to make more impactful trades.
“We’re the Yankees,” he said. “You hope so. That’s what the guys upstairs are working on. We’ll go out there and take care of business. We’ve got a great ball club already here. I think we add a couple more pieces to fix a couple of things, fine tune a couple things, we’ll be right where we need to be.”
The Yankees have been terrible for approximately the past month. They’re 14-23 in their last 37 games since June 13. Judge said the defense needed to tighten up. The Yankees have made 19 errors in their last 23 games — the most in MLB over that span.
“I think the biggest thing that’s hurt us has been giving teams extra outs,” Judge said. “Can’t give good teams extra outs. When that happens, a lot of runs are going to be scored against you. I think that’s the biggest thing right now. Tighten those things up and we’ll be where we need to be.”
On Friday, the Yankees acquired third base defensive specialist Ryan McMahon from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for a pair of lower-level pitching prospects. McMahon debuted Saturday, getting his first hit.
(Photo: Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)
