MILWAUKEE (AP) — Spencer Jones couldn’t help but notice all the differences as the New York Yankees’ newest slugger walked into the visiting clubhouse before his major league debut Friday.
Then he tried putting that out of his mind.
“It’s the same game – that’s all everyone’s been telling me,” Jones said before the Yankees' three-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers. “That’s how I’m going to approach this, and go from there.”
Jones gives the Yankees one more 6-foot-7 outfielder to pair with three-time MVP Aaron Judge. The heralded prospect was called up after Jasson Dominguez sprained the AC joint in his left shoulder while crashing into the wall to make a catch in a 9-2 victory over the Texas Rangers on Thursday.
Jones wore uniform No. 78 and batted sixth as the designated hitter against Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski, Major League Baseball’s hardest-throwing starting pitcher. Jones struck out in his first plate appearance while seeing three pitches that were at least 102.3 mph — including two that reached 103.6 mph.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he is willing to play Jones in center field or left on occasion.
Jones couldn’t hide his excitement as he prepared for his debut. He noticed everything from the greater food options to the fancier bathrooms. Yet his teammates also said he had the type of personality that should enable him to make a quick adjustment.
“For such a big and powerful guy, he’s always very relaxed,” catcher/first baseman Ben Rice said. “Say, ‘What’s going on?’ He’ll say, ‘I’m just cruising.’ It’s his saying.”
Jones figures he can learn plenty from Rice. The two friends both came up the Yankees system, though Rice made his debut in 2024 and had a breakthrough 2025.
“I told Ben this morning I’ll be attached at his hip today,” Jones said.
Jones, who turns 25 on Thursday, was hitting .258 with a .366 on-base percentage, .592 slugging percentage, 11 homers and seven steals in 33 games at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. His 41 RBIs lead minor league players.
He has been one of the Yankees’ top prospects ever since they selected him out of Vanderbilt with the 25th overall pick in the 2022 amateur draft. The biggest concern with him is his ability to make contact, as he has struck out 600 times in 1,833 minor league plate appearances.
But he’s showing progress in that regard.
After striking out 21 times in his first 41 at-bats this season, Jones has hit .291 with nine homers, 31 RBIs and 25 strikeouts in 79 at-bats since. That follows a 2025 season in which he batted .274 with a .932 OPS, 35 homers, 80 RBIs and 29 steals in 116 games at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Double-A Somerset.
Jones struck out 200 times in 2024 and 179 last year.
“I thought this spring was really good as far as seeing some of the adjustment he’s making to improve on those kind of things,” Boone said. “I think just with his power and his size, there’s going to be swing-and-miss in his game, and that’s part of it. There’s great players around the league that have that. But I think he’s made real adjustments over the last couple of years from an approach, from a swing standpoint. I feel like I saw some of those take hold, especially seeing him on an everyday basis in spring training.”
Boone cautioned that players as tall as Jones often need time to develop.
“More levers, more to get in sync,” Boone said. “It’s the same for a big pitcher. I always look at it like the Randy Johnsons of the world. Randy Johnson … it was rough early on in his career. I think part of that is just learning the mechanics. It’s the same for hitters. Aaron Judge, it took a little bit. Richie Sexson, who obviously played here a long time.
“Big guys like that, I think it’s more challenging to master your mechanics, so to speak. But once you do, you have advantages because of your leverages and levers and strength and all of that. He’s worked really hard at it.”
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New York Yankees' Spencer Jones warms up before a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Friday, May 8, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
New York Yankees' Spencer Jones looks on before a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Friday, May 8, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
MADRID (AP) — In the days since the hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean, concern has taken hold among at least some of its Spanish passengers — but not so much because they fear contracting the illness. Rather, they are afraid of how they will be received back on land.
They have seen sensational news reports and devil-may-care memes ostracizing those aboard the MV Hondius, two passengers told The Associated Press by phone from the ship on Friday.
“You go onto social media — they want to dynamite the boat. They want to sink the boat,” a Spanish man said.
He says he worries about being stigmatized as a viral vector to be avoided — or worse. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of these concerns, and another Spanish woman insisted on anonymity for the same reason.
“You see what’s out there and you realize you’re heading into the eye of a hurricane," she said. “Many people forget that in here there are more than 140 passengers. In reality, there are 140 human beings.”
A cruise ship with an outbreak has dredged up COVID-19 déjà vu — but it’s misplaced, according to the World Health Organization. For days, WHO officials have sought to dispel comparisons between coronavirus and hantavirus, stressing that the latter poses very low risk to the general public.
“This is very different virus. I want to be unequivocal here,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s head of epidemic and pandemic preparedness, said on Thursday. “This is not the start of a COVID pandemic.”
Hantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases.
But some are dismissing health experts — just as they did during the pandemic. Iustitia Europa, an anti-establishment Spanish group that rose to prominence by challenging COVID-era restrictions, called for the MV Hondius to be barred from reaching Spanish shores.
“The Canary Islands cannot become Europe's health laboratory ... We demand transparency, responsibility, and protection for Spaniards to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past,” it posted on X.
Others defaulted to defensive footing. The Canary Islands regional president, Fernando Clavijo, told Spain’s El País newspaper Friday he wouldn't be at ease until the ship leaves Spain and all passengers were headed to their respective quarantine destinations. Madrid’s regional leader Isabel Díaz Ayuso on Thursday said she disagreed with the decision to transfer the ship’s 14 Spanish passengers to a military hospital in the Spanish capital, where authorities have said they will have to quarantine.
“We’ve seen news that no one wants this boat. That it’s a boat of infected people, a boat of multimillionaires, full of rats,” the Spanish man said. “Society is in some way contaminated with a lot of noise and a lot of lies.”
He said he was taking some solace in Spanish authorities’ assurance of official escorts upon their arrival in Tenerife, where on Thursday port workers protested, citing lack of information provided about safety measures to be implemented.
The more than 140 passengers and crew could begin disembarking as early as Sunday.
The Spanish man said he was put at ease about the virus by a group of specialists who boarded while the ship was still off the coast of Cape Verde and explained the rarity of human-to-human transmission.
Passengers’ day-to-day routine has been tranquil, he added. Those who venture from their cabins into common areas lounge about reading, or attend talks — all the while wearing masks and observing social distancing. Some join a 7:30 a.m. exercise group on one of the upper decks.
Others go out for air and try to spot birds; many had hoped to return from some of the most remote places on Earth with photos of wildlife, not find themselves the focus of a glaring global spotlight.
Even so, both Spanish passengers said they would go on another cruise in the future.
“For me, personally, traveling is a means to ... live out what I’m passionate about — which is observing nature and documenting nature," she said. "Of course I would go on a cruise again.”
Biller reported from Rome. AP photographer Emilio Morenatti contributed from Barcelona.
A passenger checks his camera inside his cabin on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
A passenger on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, helps himself to water at the ship's self-service area during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
Crew members of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, wait their turns for a first interview with epidemiologists, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
A passenger on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, reads the news on his mobile phone during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
Passengers on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, scan the horizon with binoculars during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
