The Arizona Fall League has seen some terrific performances in its first days, and as we mentioned yesterday, two of the players were acquired at the trade deadline in Oakland’s Sean Manaea and Milwaukee’s Adrian Houser. Well, add JaCoby Jones of the Detroit Tigers to the list. Jones was acquired from the Pirates in the deal that sent reliever Joakim Soria to the Pirates in July. A shortstop, Jones has shown some pop for his position, belting 23 homers in 2014 in A Ball, and 16 for an encore performance in 2015 between High-A and Double-A. The downside is that the Tigers midseason acquisition saw his batting average drop by thirty-one points between the two seasons, which may limit his playing time in the majors if this trend continues.
MLB Pipeline gives this report on Jones: “Big, strong and athletic, Jones has terrific bat speed and raw power, but he still needs to refine his approach and not try to hit everything out of the park. His excellent speed and aggressive nature on the basepaths make him a threat to steal. Jones has played shortstop regularly over the last two seasons and he’s improved at the premium position, with his plus athleticism certainly helping him. What kind of player Jones will eventually be is up to his ability to make more adjustments. If he can do that, he has the raw tools to be an exciting difference-maker.”
The line about his defensive abilities is a nice way to say that he isn’t particularly great at the position, but he is athletic enough to cover some mistakes and also improve over time. That said, it appears as though Jones will be promoted in the minors by whatever his bat does in the short term. That said, let’s compare two players in their first taste of Double-A.
Player A: 37 games, .250 average, .331 OBP, 6 HR, 20 RBI, 10 SB
Player B: 38 games, .228 average, .269 OBP, 1 HR, 13 RBI, 1 SB
Player A is JaCoby Jones, and Player B is what he could possibly become. That player went on to play in Double-A again the following season and hit much better, including a .279 average, .368 OBP, with 12 homers and 62 RBI and later was an all-star and three-time gold glove winner in the major leagues. That player is none other than J.J. Hardy, who is known more for his bat than his glove, but still provided solid defense as the awards and his career 15.9 dWAR show. The one big difference between the two is that Hardy was a 2nd rounder out of high school back in 2001 while Jones was a 3rd round pick in 2013 out of college.
JaCoby Jones is not quite on that level just yet, but you can see where the comparison can make sense down the line if Jones is able to improve his defense a bit. As for the adjustments that Pipeline mentioned, Jones is 7-for-13 (.538) through three Arizona Fall League games, including a 4-for-4 performance on Wednesday. All four hits were singles, but he does have two long-balls in the early going to go along with four RBI.
It’s much too early to pronounce that Jones has turned the corner and is on his way to a tremendous career in the big leagues, but if he follows the path of J.J. Hardy, he’ll get a full season in Double-A in 2016, and that could be the big season for Jones to build upon.