Braves legend Andruw Jones falls short of Hall of Fame induction yet again

He's been called the greatest centerfielder of all time by Willie Mays himself, but that's apparently not enough to make the Hall of Fame

The National Baseball Hall of Fame has announced the 2024 inductees and Atlanta Braves great Andruw Jones is, for the 7th time in seven years, not a part of the class. 

Jones came in at 61.6%, shy of the required 75% required for induction. 

And at this point, it defies logic and understanding. 

Hall of Fame voting, for the longest time, was based on reaching those big, milestone stats: 500 homers. 3,000 hits. 300 wins. And Jones doesn't have those stats, with 434 home runs and 1,933 hits. 

But baseball's changed, as this tweet explains: 

With the retirement of Miguel Cabrera, baseball is about to enter an historically rare stretch here, folks.

Going into 2024, the active leaders in hits, home runs, and wins, are, respectively:

• Joey Votto, 2135 hits (free agent)
• Giancarlo Stanton, 402 HR (NYY)
• Justin… pic.twitter.com/Ff5LdhnCmD

— Not Gaetti (@notgaetti) January 6, 2024

So several people, myself included, have also discussed peaks: Players that had absurdly great peaks, where they were one of the elite players in baseball for a sustained period of time, are deserving of the Hall of Fame. 

And Andruw Jones fits that description. 

Jones, who debuted for Atlanta in centerfield at age 19 and hit three postseason homers (including two in the 1996 World Series), is commonly considered the greatest centerfielder of his generation, if not all time. 

Don't believe me? Here's John Smoltz saying that: 

And know where he mentioned not getting to see Willie Mays to compare Andruw to? 

It's okay, Willie Mays was apparently a fan of Andruw Jones, per former Braves player and coach Terry Pendleton (as told to David O'Brien of The Athletic)

“I was standing by the batting cage in San Francisco when I heard Willie Mays tell Andruw Jones that he’s the best he’d ever seen,” said Pendleton, who was Atlanta’s hitting coach at the time. “So I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness, did I just hear what I just heard?’ Yes, I did hear what I just heard.

“If that don’t tell the story right there, just shut the door on it.”

“I was standing by the batting cage in San Francisco when I heard Willie Mays tell Andruw Jones that he’s the best he’d ever seen,” said Pendleton

By a lot of advanced statistics, Jones was the best to ever roam centerfield. Defensive Runs Saved has him with 50 more than Willie Mays and 30 more than Roberto Clemente. 

From his 1996 debut through the 2007 season, Jones batted .263/.342/.497 with 368 homers and 1,117 RBIs. He won 10 Gold Gloves during that span, something that only five other outfielders have done in MLB history. Four of them - Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Al Kaline and Ken Griffey Jr. - are all in the Hall of Fame, while the other, Ichiro Suzuki, is considered a lock when he's finally eligible for induction in 2025.

In that same span, he was worth more than 10 defensive bWAR more than the next closest defender, Ivan Rodriguez, outpacing him 26.7 to 16.5. 

And Jones wasn't just a one-dimensional player - yes he was one of the greatest defensive centerfielders of all time, but he brought a big bat with him: 

Jones finished his career with 434 home runs. Know how many players finished their career with 10 Gold Gloves (at any position) and at least 400 home runs?

Four, and three of them - Willie Mays, Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Schmidt - are already in the Hall of Fame. The fourth is Andruw Jones. 

And I mentioned the peak above. Well, Jones' 10-year peak is right up there with anybody: From 1998 through 2007, he averaged 34 homers, 103 RBIs, a .266 average with a .504 slugging, and won a Gold Glove in every single one of those seasons.

So he's got the peak. 

And yes, the fall is precipitous. Over the last six seasons of his career (2007-2012), Jones averaged .214/.314/.420 with 15 homers per year and was out of the league by 2013.  

But the argument of "he fell off after 30" doesn't hold as much weight when you consider that he debuted at age 19. From 1997, his first year as a starter, through his age 30 season in 2007, Jones played in 1,730 of a possible 1,782 games (plus another 67 postseason games). Jones averaged 147 games a season in centerfield from ages 19 through age 30. 

If he debuted at age 23 and "fell off" at age 34, this wouldn't be as significant a talking point. 30's a nice, round number. I get it. 

But it misses that the peak - the height of greatness for Andruw Jones - was almost as high as baseball's ever seen. At his peak, which lasted for over a decade, Andruw Jones was one of the greatest baseball players to ever step foot on a MLB field, both offensively and defensively. 

And that's worth recognizing in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. 

Maybe next year, the voters will agree with me. 

John Smoltz, at 56, still has that competitive drive

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