Yes actually!

There were through the whole war repeated media reports, and sighting scares of Spanish forces off the East Coast. From Key West to Maine Spanish torpedo boats, cruisers, and battleships were repeatedly said to be prowling just off shore.

However it was nothing but war nerves and faulty reports from merchantmen. The Spanish Navy was simply not fit to conduct even the smallest of raiding force, in many ways were more dangerous to themselves than the Americans. Their vessels were also by nd large much older, while the fleets were generally of the same size(around 50 ships or so). Only 9 USN ships remained in commission that had been launched before 1890, while the Spanish retained 32!

That said there was one semi-credible Spanish force, the First Squadron of 4 modern-ish Armored Cruisers under Admiral Cervera with a small gaggle of escorting destroyers. This force was still under manned, had engineering and armament concerns and under trained, but was still the biggest threat. In general the world went in over estimating the Spanish Navy and even domestically underestimating the USN. Cervera began the war in April 1898 by concentrating his squadron in the Cape Verde Islands. He was there whent he war began on April 28.

And for about 6 weeks there was great worry over his intentions and location. The USN had also taken the step of creating a Flying Squadron and based it at Norfolk, taking many of the first rate ships from the North Atlantic Squadron which was then gather in at Key West to prepare to move against Cuba.

In mid May Cervera finally made it to Cuba as he had been ordered to and took refuge at Santiago. The Flying Squadron soon joined the other American forces at Key West when it looked like Cervera was headed there and finally by the end of May after some fits and starts took station off Santiago where it would eventually be rolled back into the North Atlantic Squadron. The blockade would last until July 3rd when Cervera was ordered to sortie and meet his defeat in battle.

But that was not quite the end of the matter. A second Spanish squadron was being organized to try to meet the American squadron under Dewey that had seized the Philippines after defeating the anemic Spanish squadron at Manila. This force under Admiral Camara was built around Spain's 1 battleship, and a newer armored cruiser, both ok and modern designs for the most part, their material condition was poor and they had not been ready for war when it began and took several weeks to make ready. Seeing a trend here? It was initially contemplated to use this force to follow through on threats to the US coast, but instead it was to sail with a convoy of army troops to aid the fight in the Philippines. Schley, the former Commodore of the Flying Squadron in June was contemplated as the CO of a new force meant to raid or at least threaten the Spanish coast in order to force the recall of the new Asiatic squadron.

But before this force could be organized Cervera's force was on the bottom and suddenly the USN was not stretched so thin and could begin sparing more ships to other missions. The Spanish squadron as recalled, having already made it as far as the Red Sea!

From there things remained essentially unchanged from a naval perspective until the end of the war in mid August. The USN just wasn't really big enough yet to accomplish more than 1 or 2 missions per theater at a time. The majority of the fleet around Cuba and Puerto Rico was taken up just keeping up the blockade, and escorting convoys as needed. While the Asiatic and Pacific campaigns were run on an absolute shoe string. And securing the sea lanes around both objective and allowing the projection of power ashore by amphibious landings were the primary objectives for the Navy at the time.

There aren't a ton of books on the naval aspects of the war but they are out there! I will also say they are mostly from the American perspective.

The Downfall of Spain: Naval History fo the Spanish American War by Herbert Wilson

The New American Navy John D. Long, who was SECNAV during the war.

Our Navy in the War with Spain John R. Spears.