Yankees add another 6-7 outfielder, draft Vanderbilt's Spencer Jones

The Yankees took a 6-7 outfielder out of Fresno State in the first round of the 2013 MLB Draft, and the California native turned out OK. His name was Aaron Judge.

They went for another 6-7 outfielder in the first round of the 2022 draft on Sunday night, selecting Spencer Jones of Vanderbilt. He too is a California native.

How will Jones turn out? That’s up to him now.

The Yankees selected Judge with the 32nd overall pick and took Jones with the 25th overall pick. Unlike Judge, Jones is a lefty hitter. He’s also much lighter than the 282-pound Judge, weighing 225 pounds.

Jones hit .370 with 12 homers and 60 RBIs for Vanderbilt. He had a slugging percentage of .643 and an on-base percentage of .460.

“We were very happy to have been able to select Spencer,” said Damon Oppenheimer, the Yankees' vice president of domestic amateur scouting. “We love how athletic he is and that he can play centerfield. He is a legitimate five tool-type guy with big power and plus speed. He has some of the best exit velocity in this year’s draft. We are really excited about his ceiling.”

Jones was ranked as the No. 49 overall prospect by Baseball America and No. 51 by MLB Pipeline.

Dan O’Dowd, the former Colorado Rockies general manager turned MLB Network analyst, sounded very enthused about the Yankees’ new first-rounder on the draft telecast.

“He’s a unicorn,” O’Dowd said. “I think what people don’t realize about Spencer is that he’s an incredible athlete . . . He’s just growing into his strength now. He’s got power to the off gap. I feel like guys that have power to the off gap will at some point in time learn to have pull power as they learn to sit on pitches in.

“The only issue for me is he’s got really long arms, which create some holes within his swing. So [with] more reps, he’ll learn how to cover those things up. But this guy’s a unicorn. There’s not many 6-foot-7 athletes out there like this.”

It was the fourth time the Yankees have selected an outfielder in the first round of the draft since 2002, joining Blake Rutherford in 2016,  Judge in 2013 and Slade Heathcott in 2009. The Yankees have selected a college player with eight of their last 12 first-round picks since 2013.

The Yankees took pitcher Drew Thorpe from Cal Poly with their second-round selection. The 6-4 righty went 10-1 with a 2.32 ERA in 15 starts this past season, striking out 149 and walking 25 in 104 2⁄3 innings. 

“We love Drew’s size and the major league stuff and command he possesses,”  Oppenheimer said. “We have seen him up to 96 [mph] and he has arguably the best changeup in the draft. He is still projectable to add velocity and his overall ability to create swing-and-miss is elite. He has the ability to move quickly through the minor leagues with a good major league starter ceiling.”

Thorpe was ranked as the No. 61 prospect by MLB Pipeline and the No. 62 prospect by Baseball America.