Chipper Jones, Other Ex-Braves Ranked Among Best Ever No. 1 MLB Picks

Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter ranked former Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones among the best ever No. 1 draft picks in MLB history.

Former Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones / Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

Former third baseman Chipper Jones is one of the greatest members of the Atlanta Braves organization. Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter also considers him one of baseball's best ever No. 1 picks.

Reuter ranked Jones third on a list of the top No. 1 MLB draft picks in history. Jones only sat behind Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez on the list.

"One of baseball's top prospects throughout his time in the minors, he finally broke through at the big league level in 1995 when he finished runner-up to Hideo Nomo in NL Rookie of the Year voting and helped bolster an already stacked Braves roster en route to a long-awaited World Series title," wrote Reuter.

"From there, he quickly developed into a bona fide superstar, winning 1999 NL MVP when he hit .319/.441/.633 with 41 doubles, 45 home runs and 110 RBI in a 6.9-WAR season. It was one of eight seasons in his career where he logged at least 5.0 WAR.

"He won a batting title as a 36-year-old in 2008 and was still going strong in his final season at the age of 40 in 2012 when he hit .287/.377/.455 for a 124 OPS+ in 112 games before hanging up his spikes."

Jones finished his 19-year career with a .303 batting average and .930 OPS. He also had 468 home runs, 549 doubles, 1,623 RBI and 2,726 hits.

In addition to his MVP and batting title, Jones made eight All-Star teams and won two Silver Slugger awards.

But interestingly, Jones was almost not the No. 1 pick. In 1990, the Braves were choosing between the third basemen from Jacksonville, FL and right-handed phenom Todd Van Poppel.

In 2018, Fox Sports' Cory McCartney wrote that the Braves organization was split on whether to select Jones or Van Poppel. The deciding factor, though, was the Braves believed Van Poppel had his heart set on pitching at the University of Texas.

So the Braves selected Jones while Van Poppel fell to the Oakland Athletics.

However, former Braves players such as Tom Glavine remembered the story differently.

"We all heard that Todd Van Poppel didn’t want to play here,” Tom Glavine said, via McCartney. “I think we all took it personally. I think we were all like ‘Okay, screw you. We don’t want you to play here.’”

Van Poppel ended his career with a 40-52 record and 5.58 ERA.

Jones was the only Braves draft pick on Reuter's list, but a few other former Braves players were on the list, including shortstop Dansby Swanson. The 2021 World Series winner and Marietta native debuted with the Braves in 2016 after getting traded from the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Swanson was No. 24 on Reuter's list. Former Braves outfielders B.J. Surhoff and Justin Upton were ranked in the top 20.