Yankees top prospects Elmer Rodriguez, Spencer Jones optioned to Triple-A

TAMPA, Fla. — Two top Yankees prospects who have received their share of attention in this camp won’t start the season in the big leagues.

Elmer Rodriguez, ranked by many evaluators as the club’s No. 1 pitching prospect, and Spencer Jones, generally rated as the organization’s No. 2 position prospect behind shortstop George Lombard Jr., were optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and reassigned to minor league camp on Monday afternoon.

The moves were wholly expected. Unless there was an unforeseen slew of injuries to the players ahead of them, neither player had a chance to break camp on the Yankees’ 26-man Opening Day roster.

But both players had standout camps that — if they can tack on good starts to their minor league seasons — put them in a good position to get strong consideration for a call-up to the majors when the inevitable roster attrition that takes place during the 162-game regular season begins.

Jones, 24, had more riding on his three weeks in camp.

The 6-7, 240-pound outfielder, the Yankees’ first-round pick in 2022, has stalled a bit in his development because of his propensity to strike out. He struck out 179 times in a combined 506 plate appearances between Double-A Somerset and Scranton after striking out 200 times in 544 plate appearances in 2024 with Somerset.

But the lefthanded-hitting Jones tweaked his stance during the offseason, and the Yankees and rival scouts have noticed a difference in his work at the plate, particularly with his strike zone discipline. Jones hit .333 (6-for-18) with three homers, a double, four walks and six strikeouts in nine games.

“Definitely better,” said one National League evaluator who saw Jones multiple times in the minors last season. “It’s not a lot [of games] and I don’t know if it’s sustainable, but there was improvement.”

Hitting coach James Rowson said he has seen “growth” in Jones during camp.

“He’s learning things that work for him and he’s learning things that haven’t worked for him,” Rowson said Monday. “He’s not throwing away any at-bats. He has a plan for every at-bat.

“Every at-bat’s not going to end up in a positive result, but you go back and you look at your at-bats and you say, ‘Did I have a plan for that at-bat? Did I execute what I was trying to do as far as my game-plan approach?

“That allows you to make your adjustments, and some of those conversations that he’s having are tremendous. I can tell he hasn’t thrown one at-bat away this spring. He’s had a plan for every at-bat, regardless of what the result has been.”

Jones came into camp blocked from competing for an everyday job, as did Jasson Dominguez, because Trent Grisham accepted the qualifying offer in early November and Cody Bellinger re-signed in January. That left the Yankees with a starting outfield, from left to right, of Bellinger, Grisham and Aaron Judge.

The organization wants Jones and Dominguez to play every day, the reason neither is in the race for a reserve role. (Dominguez, also likely bound for Triple-A to start the year, probably will last until the end of big-league camp.)

Rodriguez, 22, a fourth-round pick of the Red Sox in 2021 who came to the Yankees in December 2024 as part of the trade that sent catcher Carlos Narvaez to Boston, consistently impressed during bullpen sessions, live batting practice and two exhibition starts before departing for the World Baseball Classic and Team Puerto Rico.

The 6-3, 160-pound righthander went 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA in two Grapefruit League starts.

Most rival scouts see Rodriguez as being slightly more polished and big league-ready than the club’s other touted pitching prospect, hard-throwing Carlos Lagrange, although the same scouts think highly of the 6-7 Lagrange as well.

Rodriguez started for Team Puerto Rico on Monday night against Cuba and allowed a hit and three walks in three scoreless innings, striking out three. He allowed five hits and one walk in six Grapefruit League innings, striking out five.

In a WBC warmup outing against the Red Sox in Fort Myers last Tuesday, Rodriguez allowed one hit and struck out two in three scoreless innings against his former team.

“The WBC is going to make him a better player,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said, according to The Boston Globe. “We’re going to have to deal with him at one point in his career.”

Not at the start of the 2026 season, but perhaps not too long after that.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.