Spencer Jones made note of this weekend long before he debuted with the New York Yankees in May and returned as the primary replacement for the injured Aaron Judge.
The La Costa Canyon High School product had slugged his way from the Double-A Somerset to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in late August 2025 when the 2026 schedule release revealed the Yankees would be playing in San Diego.
That gave him a year to make sure he’d be in uniform in hometown Petco Park.
“This series has been circled on the calendar for a while,” the 25-year-old Jones said hours before collecting a go-ahead single in the 10th inning off Padres closer Mason Miller on Friday night; Jones was ultimately thrown out trying to steal third in the Padres’ 3-2 win. “Knowing the team was going to come back here, wanted to be here with the team in September, playing in San Diego.
“It’s a dream come true.”
Spencer Jones #78 of the New York Yankees bats against the San Diego Padres during the first inning at Petco Park on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The left-handed-hitting Jones won a high school home run derby at the East Village park, slipping a ball inside the left-field foul pole in the final seconds of his round. He played at Petco Park as a senior and then was put through the paces during the draft combine ahead of the Yankees making him their first-round pick.
Growing up, Jones rooted for the likes of Adrián Gonzalez, Jake Peavy and the Giles brothers.
One of his earliest Petco Park memories was wondering why the Friar faithful would boo Kevin Kouzmanoff after a home run.
“They were just yelling ‘Kouz!’” Jones recalled with a laugh. “I thought that was funny. But yeah, came to a lot of games here, watched a lot on TV.”
Vanderbilt recruited the 6-foot-7 left-hander as a two-way prospect, but Tommy John surgery ultimately led him to focus on hitting. The Yankees took him with their first-round pick in the 2022 draft. He reached Double-A Somerset the following year, but repeated that level in 2024 and 2025 as he struggled to pair plus raw power with simple contact.
While a 35-homer season split between Double-A and Triple-A in 2025 was certainly something to dream on, Jones’ strikeout rate jumped from 28.9% in 2023 to 36.8% in 2024 and settled at 35.4% last year.
But this year, Jones shaved that rate to 30.9% in the minors. He was hitting .258/.366/.592 with 11 homers in the Triple-A International League in May when an injury to Jasson Dominguez led to his MLB debut. He was 4-for-24 in that stint, but hit .306/.419/.500 over the following 10 games at Triple-A to get another look when Judge went down with a stress fracture in a rib.
New York Yankees Spencer Jones celebrates his solo home run against the Los Angeles Angels of a baseball game Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Wally Skalij)
While Jones has been up and down a bit since then, he is hitting .250/.322/.482 over his last 57 games in the majors. Jones mashed two of his nine big-league home runs in the week in Anaheim, all but ensuring he’d be on the roster for a triumphant return to his hometown park.
Jones said a few dozen friends and family members would be at Petco this weekend.
“I think it was a matter of health and being able to stay on the field every day,” Jones said of finally debuting and sticking with the Yankees. “Being a pitcher mostly growing up and then getting opportunities as an outfielder in college and being able to carry that through, cleaning up some of the swing stuff I had going on, some of the approach stuff, and then, you know, now having an opportunity to play here is — it’s incredible.”