As recently as last February, Andruw Jones was in the news, hoping to catch back on in Major League Baseball. Though he hadn't played in the bigs since 2012, he had two productive seasons in Japan (50 homers with an OBP of over .390 during that stretch) and was hoping for one last shot.
Alas, it appears that won't come, and he's hanging up his cleats for good.
Andruw Jones had talked of a comeback, but says he will be announcing retirement soon. #Braves
— Cory McCartney (@coryjmccartney) January 30, 2016
What's funny when it comes to Jones is just how much the second part of his career clouds how great he was for the first part.
Let's totally ignore everthing that happened after 2006. Here's Andruw Jones' legacy:
Through his age-29 season, Jones had nine Gold Gloves and was well on the way to being one of baseball's greatest defensive center fielders in history. There was seemingly nothing he couldn't run down, and he had seven seasons with at least 10 assists, despite teams rarely running on him.
In 10-and-change seasons, Jones already had more than 1,500 hits and 1,000 RBI. He had 342 homers and 303 doubles, not to mention 133 stolen bases. Though his average (.267) wasn't great, it wasn't bad either, and his walks and power pushed his OPS+ to 116.
Jones' postseason resume was nice, too, as in 1996 he became the youngest player to ever homer in the World Series. Through 75 postseason games, he hit .273/.365/.433 with 10 homers and 33 RBI.
His most statistically similar player through age 29 per Baseball Reference? Frank Robinson.
It might be hard for some to remember, but through his age-29 season, we had every right to call Andruw Jones a "future Hall of Famer."
Post-2006, though, Jones essentially fell apart. He did have 26 homers and 94 RBI in 2007, but he hit .222 with an 87 OPS+. The rest of his career, he'd hit .210/.316/.424. He could still hit homers, but that was about it. No longer a threat to steal bases, Jones' ballooning weight also morphed him into a defensive liability, even on the corners. He had become everything the DH naysayers like to pretend all DHs are: a player who basically only tried to hit home runs and did nothing else well.
With it came the incessant mockery. Jones had become the butt of jokes among fans and media alike. In fact, if you even bring up Jones' Hall of Fame case, you'll likely be met with laughter, even though he does have some Hall-like qualifications.
Not enough, though.
On the whole, Jones' once surefire Hall of Fame resume now falls short. A career .254/.337/.486 hitter means a 111 OPS+. With a great defensive center fielder, that could play, but he was only that for half of a career. How about the counting stats? Well, there are 1,933 hits, 434 homers, 1,289 RBI, 1,204 runs, 383 doubles and 152 steals.
In the area of advanced metrics, Jones' peak was of Hall of Fame value in JAWS, but his whole career value falls short. This isn't surprising.
And remember that similarity score referenced above? Jones' top matches for a full career now are Dale Murphy, Jose Canseco and Joe Carter. Not embarrassing at all, for sure, but a far cry from Frank Robinson (Eddie Mathews and Ken Griffey Jr. were the next two comparables through age 29, by the way).
And that pretty well sums up the career of Andruw Jones. Just south of 30 years old, he was on track to be in the same discussion as Robinson, Mathews and Junior, but he ended up similar to Carter and Canseco.
Andruw Jones is retiring from a very good career. It's just a bit sad -- on a relative level, of course -- to see that what once looked like an elite-level Hall of Famer end up more punchline than praised.
