Yankees prospects Spencer Jones, Clayton Beeter looking to make name for themselves at Futures Game
Clayton Beeter is a pitcher in the Yankees farm system. Credit: Somerset Patriots
SEATTLE — Spencer Jones and Clayton Beeter, the two prospects representing the Yankees at Saturday’s Futures Game, arrived at T-Mobile Park with some fairly high-profile name recognition.
Just not their own. Not yet, anyway.
Jones, a slugging 6-7 outfielder, has drawn the obvious comparisons to Aaron Judge, mostly based on height and above-average exit velocity. Beeter, as you may remember, was the pitcher the Yankees acquired from the Dodgers when they sent Joey Gallo to Los Angeles at last year’s trade deadline.
Jones, currently at High-A Hudson Valley, is the further of the two from putting on pinstripes. Though he’s flattered to be mentioned in the same conversation as Judge, one look at Jones tells a different story.
For one, he’s a lefthanded hitter. And two, Jones is more wiry at 225 pounds, which helps explain why he has stolen 21 bases through 68 games to pair with 10 homers and an .800 OPS.
But when Jones looks at the 6-7 Judge and sees another NFL-size player with a big strike zone to cover who turned himself into an MVP, the path to the Bronx becomes easier for him to imagine.
The two chatted some during spring training, and Jones, the Yankees’ top pick last year (No. 25 overall), has taken those words to heart.
“We were joking around in the weight room that once you get to a certain size, it’s about moving right, it’s not so much about strength,” said Jones, who went 0-for-1 with a walk and a strikeout on Saturday.
As for Judge’s success, Jones added: “It’s encouraging, because there’s not a lot of guys our height that are there running around, playing every day. Seeing somebody in our organization that’s able to do that, contribute when he’s on the field, it’s special.”
And here’s another name drop involving Jones — that of Shohei Ohtani.
Jones, a former Vanderbilt star, began his college career as a two-way player. He was a fireballing lefthanded pitcher who decided to give up the mound forever after needing Tommy John surgery the summer of his freshman year.
“I always considered myself more of a thrower than a pitcher,” Jones said. “I threw stuff hard and really didn’t know where it was going. It wasn’t really that fun being on the mound, throwing 20 pitches an inning, walking a couple of guys. I didn’t want to keep doing that.”
For Beeter, he’s not only comfortable with being the prospect who could (somewhat) redeem Gallo’s boo-filled Bronx tenure, it’s a badge of honor for him. Turns out Beeter, 24, grew up in Fort Worth as a Rangers fan, and Gallo was a favorite.
“I know every time my name gets mentioned, so does Joey Gallo’s,” Beeter said, smiling. “It’s cool, but at the same time, I want people to know who I am, too.”
Beeter is definitely making progress in that department.
The Yankees promoted him to Triple-A Scranton last month after he had a 2.08 ERA and 11.3 K/9 ratio in 12 starts for Double-A Somerset. Now the focus is about going deeper into games and getting accustomed to the tighter zone of the automated ball-strike system.
Beeter said his high-90s fastball is holding up to the longer workloads. He’s also motivated by the recent call-ups of Randy Vasquez and Jhony Brito to the majors, showing the Yankees’ willingness to reach down frequently for rotation help.
“You learn from the guys there because a lot of those guys have been with [the Yankees],” said Beeter, who struck out one in two-thirds of an inning on Saturday. “So it’s been nice to play with guys that have big-league time and talk to them about all that stuff. I don’t really think about, oh, it could be tomorrow or anything. I’m just trying to keep pitching, and if it happens, it happens.”
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
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