Spencer Jones’ Ever-Evolving Batting Stance Getting Results So Far In 2025
Image credit: Spencer Jones (Photo by Diamond Images via Getty Images)
Yankees outfielder Spencer Jones came into the 2025 season needing to turnaround what has been a very discouraging trend.
Jones’ combination of athleticism and power made him one of the Yankees’ best prospects, as he showed in a .267/.336/.444 2023 season where he had 49 extra-base hits and 43 stolen bases while reaching Double-A.
But in his return to Double-A in 2024, his key weakness (a poor contact rate) got much worse. He struck out 200 times with a 36.8% strikeout rate. He still managed to hit .259/.336/.452 with 53 extra-base hits, which offered a reminder of what he could do if he could make better swing decisions and make more contact.
Needing to make a change heading into what was widely considered a “make or break” season for New York’s No. 6 prospect, the result was the debut of a new closed stance featuring a quick launch move similar to that of fellow Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge.
And pretty quickly, he changed it. In the first game of the season, Jones’ setup was slightly closed, with his front foot closer to home plate than his back foot as he began his timing step to start his swing.
Just a couple of days later, he’d gone to a more neutral stance, with his front foot set a bit further back from home plate. Entering the season, there was quite a bit of coverage surrounding and changes made in the offseason to his swing and stance at the plate.
He’s been opening it more and more ever since.
By April 15, he’d gone to a slightly open stance. And every few days, he kept opening it more.
Now, he has one of the most open stances in pro baseball, and he’s now added a Jeff Bagwell-esque crouch to the setup.
It’s been a day-by-day set of tweaks, but the result is a massive adjustment.
It seems to be working. Small sample size caveats apply here. Jones’ stance has been steadily evolving, but as he’s opened up, he’s made tangible improvements in his plate coverage and his plate discipline. It’s largely setup tweaks, as he ends up getting to a similar place by pitch release.
The look of the 6-foot-7 Jones drifting from one side of the lefthanded batters box to the other is awkward at first. The adjustments however have brought tangible results.
While Jones was productive during the first series of the year he was chasing, whiffing and hitting a high rate of ground balls and a low rate of fly balls.
| Dates | SwStr% | Chase% | FB% | GB% | Swing% |
| April 4 – April 13 | 19% | 28% | 18% | 45% | 45% |
After opening up more during the series from April 15 to April 20, Jones found more barrels, and it resulted in more fly balls. He was still whiffing and chasing some.
| Dates | SwStr% | Chase% | FB% | GB% | Swing% |
| April 15 – April 20 | 19% | 30% | 44% | 38% | 48% |
In last week’s series against Hartford, when Jones moved fully to the seated, open setup prior to his move, he nearly eliminated his chase swings. By weeding out his bad swings, he’s been able to cut down on his whiffs, sustain the same consistent contact point on the barrel and maintain the increase in fly balls.
| Dates | SwStr% | Chase% | FB% | GB% | Swing% |
| April 22 – April 27 | 15% | 9% | 56% | 11% | 36% |
These changes can be seen visually on Jones heat maps (courtesy of Synergy Sports), as well. Below you can see the differences in contact between the sample of April 4-13 vs. the open-stance sample from April 15-27.
Jones is showing improved ability to get to the high fastball since going open and is making far more contact at the bottom of the zone. This becomes more evident when looking at the whiff sample below.
In the first part of the season with the more closed stance, Jones was chasing and missing plenty of pitches out of the strike zone, especially sliders down and in (the blue dots). Opening up a stance can be beneficial to a hitter because it gives them a better view of the ball with both eyes. Once he fully opened up, Jones was able to cut out chasing and missing pitches down and in.
His new stance and load look like it might be resulting in him identifying pitches more quickly, buying him time to make the proper adjustments for pitch location. While there will always be swing-and-miss in Jones’ profile, if he finds a way to limit his exposure to this weakness while accentuating his best qualities—hard contact and on-base skills—he might still develop into the power-hitting center fielder Yankees fans envision.
