Spencer Jones getting Shohei Ohtani comparisons is unfair target on Yankees fans

The New York Yankees have a notorious reputation for overhyping their prospects, and the latest Spencer Jones buzz only adds fuel to that fire.

MLB.com's Bryan Hoch just wrote an article revealing that Yankees outfield prospect Spencer Jones models his swing after Los Angeles Dodgers megastar Shohei Ohtani.

With Jones still waiting to experience his first Major League at-bat, any link to Ohtani is laughable, and Yankees fans are sure to receive some strays for this one.

The Spencer Jones-Shohei Ohtani discussion isn't productive for anyone

There's no shame in Jones admiring Ohtani or wanting to emulate him. Who wouldn't want to be the GOAT? We don't criticize NBA prospects for calling Michael Jordan their favorite player or saying MJ inspires them. We don't deride a beginner pianist for wanting to be Beethoven.

But there's a difference between aspiration and side-by-side comparison. In that light, Ohtani shouldn't be placed beside anyone right now, much less a prospect who has never appeared in an MLB game.

By making his Ohtani emulation public, Jones did nothing but invite scorn and rolled eyes from baseball fans. This could lead to a side effect for Yankees fans, who are often unfairly labeled as entitled or holier-than-thou by the rest of the MLB fan-verse. It also didn't help the official MLB Twitter account bought into it, either.

So yeah, let's try to leave Ohtani's name out of all Spencer Jones discourse moving forward, shall we? Or, at least put it off until Jones is actually an MLB player. Let's not forget, Yankees fans have been particularly critical of Jones as of late, so it's not like they're hyping him up to be somebody he's not.

By the way, Jones has been a mixed bag at the plate thus far in spring training. After some rough batting practice footage emerged, Jones went ahead and smashed a homer in his first at-bat in the Grapefruit League on Saturday, as if to cut his haters off mid-sentence. (Ohtani-esque, wasn't it!)

It's still difficult to see where and when Jones will fit into the Yankees' big-league plans in 2026, especially with Cody Bellinger back in the Bronx.

During the dreadful Belli standoff this past offseason, Jones and Jasson Dominguez were highlighted as rising stars the Yanks would turn to in a big way alongside Trent Grisham and Aaron Judge. That's no longer the situation.

Will a similar discussion repeat itself next offseason, this time with Grisham's long-term future with the team up in the air? We'll see about that.

In the meantime, the Yankees will surely do what they can to keep Jones and Dominguez's trade value as ripe as possible. The Barry Bonds-Spencer Jones comp is in the oven as we speak!