Andruw Jones has officially decided to hang up his spikes for good and has announced he is retiring after playing seventeen seasons in MLB and a few years over in Japan with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. Jones made the announcement after being inducted into the Atlanta Braves Hall of Fame.
Andruw Jones: "Now that I get the induction, I can say that I’m officially retired. I probably will try to focus on helping the youth."
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) February 24, 2016
While Jones played for several teams during his career, he will undoubtedly be most remembered for his time in Atlanta, where he spent the first twelve years of his career. Jones burst onto the scene as a nineteen year old rookie in 1996, before settling in as the full time centerfielder with the Braves the following season.
Jones would go on to win an amazing ten straight Gold Glove Awards patrolling the outfield for the Braves, where he would an average a 2.4 dWAR. In addition to his mastery in the field, Jones would prove to be just as potent at the plate. Over the course of his career, he hit an impressive 434 homeruns to along with a .254/.337/.486 slash line with a wRC of +111.
Those numbers span his entire career obviously, but it truly underscores how dominate he was during his prime in Atlanta. Per CBS Sports, Jones amassed more than 1,500 hits and 1,000 RBI to along with 342 homeruns and 133 stolen bases.
Jones was the classic case of a player who peaked very early, as the first half of his career could be argued as Hall of Fame worthy. Unfortunately, the remainder of his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox, and New York Yankees led to a far less inspiring .210/.316/.424 slash line, and at the same time he would become a defensive liability, causing him to serve primarily as a DH when he moved over to the American League.
Regardless of whether or not Andruw Jones finds his way to Cooperstown, there is no denying he was one of the most electric and best all-around players in for a number of years.
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