Underrated Yankees prospect has the secret sauce they're missing (so wake up)

I already knew what the result would be before I made the quick search. Needless to say, though, it was quite satisfying to see that breakout Yankees prospect Brendan Jones is hitting .357 with a 1.036 OPS this season with two outs and runners in scoring position.

That's a step up from his .240/.757 marks overall, but rising to the occasion is inextricable from Jones' overall profile. He's unafraid of the moment and pesky, frustrating to his opponents and beloved by his supporters. He's the exact type of player who seems to be undervalued by modern metrics — and, therefore, undervalued by the Yankees, who too often seem to be lacking juice as they build a team full of exit velocity seekers in a lab.

During difficult times (like the majority of the last three seasons), aggrieved fans look to former players to dish on the Yankees' developmental failures. Surely, they're prizing hard-hit balls over fundamentals. Surely, they aren't teaching the game itself at the minor-league level. Sometimes, you can even get a quote or two from a former player to back up that fear. The longer the big-league slump goes and the more highly-touted prospects who arrive at the MLB level or regress/grow quickly afraid of the left field wall, the more credence those detractors seem to earn.

The team's current trendline is one of many reasons the Yankees should pay attention to Jones, but the outfielder's tenacity, speed, and lefty pop deserve to be prized by the team, regardless of context. That said, if they bury him in a trade package this winter rather than taking advantage of one of their rare assets who seems to be greater than the sum of his parts rather than less, there'll be hell to pay.

Yankees cannot afford to ignore prospect Brendan Jones' intangibles when building their 2026 roster

The 23-year-old former Kansas State standout could easily be a viable fourth outfielder next year for a big-league team that's about to lose Trent Grisham (their clutchest piece), as well as potentially Cody Bellinger and even Aaron Judge, who might be eyeing DH duties more often in the near future.

Given how many remarkably high upside/low floor options the Yankees currently employ, it would be very refreshing if they decided to take a long look at Jones, who's sturdy like Brett Gardner and seems to get better when it matters the most. His .801 Double-A OPS would indicate he's ready for a September cameo in Scranton, and (ideally) a genuine look next spring.

Pinch-hit him with runners in scoring position late in a spring training game. Start him off in the situation where he's most comfortable. See what happens.