Detroit Tigers Outfielder JaCoby Jones Scouting Report

Scouting Report

Body/Basics

Jones is listed at 6’2 and 205 pounds and hits and throws right-handed. He looks right on his listed size, but his build is so athletic. Jones comes out with a very balanced stance at the plate, but he has a long swing that is predicated by a drop in his back elbow. This likely generates some good power leverage, but interestingly, his swing path is fairly level for dipping his back elbow in that way.

Jones does have very obvious strength in his legs, so when he gets good extension on his arms along with his legs in prime “release” point in the swing, the ball simply explodes off of his bat. The issue he runs into is that he has very long arms, and in those long arms, he has a long swing that he has not learned to shorten up for approach purposes. He pounds the ball into the gaps, and when he can get everything perfect, he’ll easily clear the outfield fences.

Jones certainly needs work to shorten his swing, but he’d also benefit from utilizing his blazing speed through working more line drives and ground balls as anything not hit perfectly at a fielder is really an opportunity for an infield hit with his speed out of the box.

Base Running/Fielding

Jones has incredible athleticism, looking like he could walk on right now to play college defensive back. His base running, much like his plate approach, is very raw. Some of this shows in his base stealing, as he has only been successful on 71% of his base stealing attempts, in spite of being often the fastest player on the field.

When it comes to running the bases, Jones uses his speed exceptionally well, but he hasn’t developed those great reads as a base runner to consistently take first to third on an outfield single or to challenge second to home on a slow single to the outfield. He’s certainly got the speed for it, and I’d say that on a raw 20-80 scale, his speed would be a 60-65, but his base running and base stealing would both be in the 45-55 range, depending on when you see him play.

Jones is not rangy enough or adept enough around the second base bag to be a starting shortstop, but his arm and surprisingly good reads off the bat in the outfield could allow him to play well in the outfield, whether it be in center field or a corner spot. I really see his skill set defensively playing best as a guy who plays two-three games per week at third, and three games a week in the outfield.

Video

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