The Yankees’ No. 2 prospect has a few of the finest energy within the Minor Leagues, and he put that on show in his first Spring Coaching at-bat when he crushed a house run 470 ft.
Come June, the 6-foot-6 slugger’s play on the plate has heated as much as one other stage. And Jones capped off the robust month along with his finest skilled sport but: a two-homer, four-hit efficiency with a career-high seven RBIs in Somerset’s 13-3 win on Sunday at The Diamond.
“Recently I have been feeling fairly good, feeling assured, simply specializing in the issues that I management and making an attempt to win each pitch,” Jones mentioned. “The most important factor for me is simply getting as much as the plate with a whole lot of confidence and realizing I will do injury in any scenario that I am in.”
MLB’s No. 65 prospect hit the ball with authority Sunday en path to tying Somerset’s single-game RBI document as a Yankees affiliate. He lasered a ball up the center for a single within the third inning earlier than clobbering an opposite-field homer within the fifth. Two frames later, the 23-year-old crushed a double that one-hopped the right-center fence and slugged a grand slam to the identical spot when he batted once more within the seventh.
Jones labored a four-pitch stroll within the ninth, the primary time as a professional he safely reached 5 instances. It was additionally the third multihomer sport of his professional profession and first of the season — and raised his season OPS 46 factors to .750.
However Jones hasn’t all the time had that confidence on the plate this yr. The Vanderbilt product returned in mid-April after lacking a week-plus with a stiff neck and hit .320/.382/.540 within the opening month. From there, nonetheless, he cooled off considerably in Might, batting simply .170/.382/.220 with three extra-base hits.
Jones had made a preseason swing change to decrease his hand place, which gave him extra freedom to assault all elements of the plate, however he nonetheless felt like he wasn’t attacking like regular with the bat.
“While you change some stuff round otherwise you attempt make some changes, the largest hurdle shouldn’t be serious about these adjustments as a lot,” Jones mentioned. “It is going on the market and competing. I believe that is form of what was holding me again that one month. … I am glad that Might occurred and I bought to study as a lot as attainable.”
Together with his confidence again, Jones has been pummeling the ball persistently. 13 of the 2022 first-rounder’s 32 knocks in June have gone for additional bases, aiding him to a .901 OPS.
And the definitive signal that the brand new stance and poise on the plate have meshed collectively, he has been in a position to cowl all the plate higher than ever and use his 60-grade energy to ship homers out to any a part of the park.
“I prefer to go up there with the arrogance that I can hit any pitch in any a part of the zone actually laborious,” Jones mentioned. “I take pleasure in having the ability to hit it to all fields and having the ability to do injury on pitches within the zone.”
