Roger Rubin: Yankees might have to send Spencer Jones to minors for a while
Yankees' Spencer Jones follows through on his second-inning two run home run against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on Friday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Yankees have made their eagerness to return Cody Bellinger to their diminished lineup more than plain to see, and with good reason.
They’re in hot pursuit of the Rays for the AL East title and top seeding for the postseason — a margin that was reduced to three games Friday when the Yankees won their fifth straight, topping the Blue Jays, 3-1, before 45,062 at the Stadium. In the 24 games since a left hamstring strain landed Bellinger on the injured list on July 26, the Yankees have averaged 3.5 runs.
Bellinger finished a two-game rehab assignment Friday and was to scheduled to have Saturday off and be activated on Sunday, manager Aaron Boone said.
Adding him to the 26-man active roster means someone has to be subtracted. Though Boone called the debate on that “preliminary,” the simplest way to get from Point A to Point B looks like optioning rookie outfielder Spencer Jones and his surging bat to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
It shouldn’t be that easy a decision. Jones followed his three-hit performance in Baltimore on Thursday with a towering two-run home run around the rightfield foul pole and into the second deck against Toronto. In his last nine games, he is batting .303 with two homers, six RBIs and three stolen bases. Removing a productive bat feels counterintuitive.
Jones would be able to return when rosters expand to 28 on Sept. 1, but that still means he would miss eight big games against Toronto, Houston and Boston plus one against the Angels.
Asked about the impending move, Boone replied, “You know those things: You get ahead of yourselves a little bit sometimes and something else crops up.”
Case in point: Ryan McMahon was diagnosed with a Grade 2 left thumb sprain and placed on the 10-day injured list before first pitch Friday, with utilityman Max Schuemann called up to fill the spot.
Schuemann, like Jones, could be optioned when Bellinger is activated. In theory, that would give Jones one more game to make a decision to send him down harder. Boone didn’t sound like a subscriber before first pitch when he said Schuemann “covers us everywhere.” Jones strictly plays the outfield.
In this moment, wouldn’t the notion of keeping Jones in a platoon with struggling deadline acquisition Heliot Ramos — who is 6-for-49 in pinstripes — sound better than keeping Schuemann because he also can play the infield? Couldn’t Jose Caballero and Amed Rosario keep the Yankees covered in the infield?
Maybe it’s not the easy thing, but we think the answer to both is “yes.”
Keeping Jones on the big-league roster would have been very hard before McMahon went on the IL. Rosario has pop against lefthanded pitching, and the Yankees value him too much to designate him for assignment and lose him completely. Spending a week with 12 pitchers instead of 13 would be nearly impossible for the Yankees to stomach.
Of his recent success, Jones said, “It’s been a lot of adjustments for me day-to-day . . . Coaches have had different ideas for me and I’m willing and able to try and do what I can.
“What you want to do as a player is to be on a team that’s competing and then to help the team win games in any way possible. You’re just having the opportunity, and then nights like tonight, where I’m able to help the team win, it’s huge.”
Said Boone, “He’s never felt overmatched or anything and [he’s] making some good adjustments. He has a feel of what an opposing pitcher’s strengths and weaknesses are and how they might try to attack him, and he’s doing a good job with that.”
That the Yankees have the second-best record in the American League speaks to the strength of a pitching staff that had an AL-best 3.22 ERA entering Friday. It’s been a long time since they had all four of their big run-producing bats — Aaron Judge, Bellinger, Giancarlo Stanton and Ben Rice — together in the batting order.
Stanton hasn’t played since April 24 because of a calf injury. Judge hasn’t played since May 31 because of a rib stress fracture. When Bellinger got hurt on July 25, Rice was the only one left.
They do seem to be getting healthier. Stanton is running at or near full speed (for him). Judge is swinging a bat and hitting off a tee. McMahon optimistically said “hopefully it’s just the 10 days” because “I have a high pain tolerance.”
Lefthander Max Fried — on the 15-day injured list for a second time with a left elbow bone bruise — said he will throw off a mound Saturday and could be back in the rotation before the end of the month.
For Stanton to be in the lineup when he returns, he would have to be the DH, possibly sharing those duties with Rice and Luis Garcia Jr. (those two also play first base). The return of Bellinger and Judge will cost Ramos and/or Trent Grisham outfield starts. Fried’s return would bring about the long-awaited call about whether to move Ryan Weathers or Will Warren from the starting rotation to the bullpen (Weathers has been spectacular of late).
Whether to send Jones to the minors on Sunday feels like a tough call today. Harder ones almost certainly lie ahead.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
