Well, this is the shortest article ever; the answer is obviously no.  Aaron Judge is a generational talent.  No Yankee in the next decade will put up numbers even approaching his.  Ok, now that we have got past that, spring training has started, so now it’s time to take a close look at some of the players who have a chance to make the team.  Spencer Jones is one of them, even though there really isn’t room for him in the outfield or at designated hitter.  As injuries happen, though, we could see Spencer Jones at some point in time, so what should we expect from this polarizing player?  

Aaron Judge stunk when he first got called up

Let’s start by setting the bar, and when it comes to a debut, it’s actually not that high for Aaron Judge.  In 2016, Judge had 95 plate appearances and managed to accumulate a -0.3 WAR.  The problem?   He couldn’t put the ball in play.  He struck out in literally half his at-bats.  He did hit 4 homeruns, but you can’t have a good season when you strike out half the time, and .179/.263/.345 is not a good slash line.

Guess who else strikes out a ton!

Spencer Jones!  Yes, anyone who doubts his ability always brings up the strikeouts.  In 506 plate appearances between AA/AAA in 2025, he managed to strike out 179 times in only 438 at-bats.  And it wasn’t an aberration.  In 2024, in AA, he struck out 200 times in 482 at-bats.  Obviously, he needs to learn to put the ball in play.  But remember, what I said above, you can’t play well if you don’t put the ball in play.  Well, Jones barely put the ball in play in 2025 and still put up a .274/.362/.571 slash line!

But that was in the minors, and Judge was much better in the minors

Was he?  In 2016, before he got called up, Aaron Judge put up a .270/.366/.489 slash line in AAA with 98 strikeouts in 352 at-bats.  So, Jones struck out more, but he also hit a lot more home runs (Judge only hit 19 in AAA that year, and Jones hit 35 last year, including 19 in AAA in 89 less at bats than Judge).  In 2015, was a similar story for Judge as he hit .255/.330/.448 in AA/AAA with 144 strikeouts in 478 at-bats.  So again, Judge struck out less, but his numbers were almost identical to what Jones put up in 2024 (.259/.336/.452, but admittedly exclusively in AA).

So what does this all mean?

Well, it doesn’t mean Spencer Jones will be the next Aaron Judge (and besides, he hits from the other side of the plate).  What it does mean is that a lot of strikeouts when a tall player is trying to figure it out is not unusual.  It also means players can be quite productive even if they strike out a lot.  Minor league success, however, is not major league success, but when you compare the two players’ minor league careers, they are very similar.  Hopefully, fans remember that if Jones gets a shot and he struggles at first.  Just imagine if the Yankees had given up on Aaron Judge after he stunk in 2016!