Andruw Jones is one of the best defensive center fielders of all time. He won 10 straight Gold Gloves with the Atlanta Braves from 1998 to 2007 while also swinging the bat pretty well.
In 12 seasons with the Braves, Jones hit 368 home runs – including a career-high 51 in 2005 – with 1,117 RBI while batting .263 with an .839 OPS. He then had stops with the Dodgers, Rangers, White Sox, and Yankees before retiring after the 2012 season.
MLB analyst Jon Morosi joined Audacy’s “The Bret Boone Podcast” and explained why he voted for Jones to make the Hall of Fame.
“Andruw Jones, for me, I love the way you framed it because you used the word ‘best.’ In terms of history of the game, you want to go with those that have that word that ends in -est – greatest, best, whatever it is,” Morosi said (18:30 in player above). “He fits that category. He won 10 Gold Gloves in a row.”
Legendary outfielder Willie Mays still holds the record with 12 Gold Gloves as a center fielder, but Jones certainly isn’t too far behind him in the history books.
“I know the point’s been made by other veteran players who played with Andruw that if he’d retired after those first 10 years, just walked away from the game, we would’ve said first ballot Hall of Famer,” Morosi continued. “He hangs on a bit and his numbers go down, which is what’s supposed to happen in your 30s, and for some reason, he’s getting criticized for that, for just having a normal aging curve where you’re not the same player at 35 that you were when you were 25. That’s supposed to be the case.”
From 1997 to 2006, when Jones was in his 20s, he averaged 35 home runs and 104 RBI per 162 games while batting .268 with an .853 OPS. In the last six seasons of his career, those numbers came down a bit to 25 home runs and 73 RBI per 162 games with a lowly .214 batting average.
“I have a real issue with the notion that he played himself out of the Hall of Fame in some way. He was still, by the way, a valuable player later in his career to the Yankees,” Morosi said,. “He was in more of a platoon role, but he was still a good ballplayer. The peak was so great on some historically significant teams in Atlanta that he belongs in there… The playoff streak the Braves had, he was a huge part of that. They don’t have that streak without Andruw Jones.”
According to the 2024 BBHOF Tracker, Jones has received votes from 92 of 127 public ballots as of January 9th. That’s a 67.6% clip, a bit shy of the 75% needed to be inducted. We’ll see if Jones earns his spot in Cooperstown as more ballots roll in.