Cleveland Baseball Insider

Did The Guardians Give Up On Nolan Jones Too Soon?

Former Cleveland Guardians prospect Nolan Jones is taking off with the Colorado Rockies.

Tommy Wild

Did The Guardians Give Up On Nolan Jones Too Soon?
Did The Guardians Give Up On Nolan Jones Too Soon? /
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A familiar face showed up on the timelines of Cleveland Guardians fans on Sunday afternoon. Nolan Jones, who was a high draft pick in the organization in 2016, was all over social media after hitting a walk-off home run for the Colorado Rockies. 

Jones played in 28 games (86 plate appearances) for the Guardians in 2022. In that time, he slashed .244/.309/.372 with an OPS of 681. Not a horrendous showing and definitely room for improvement, but he was a rookie after all.

Nolan began to struggle and only hit .167 in his final 10 games with the Big League club before being sent down to Triple-A for the rest of the season. That would be the end of Jones' time with the Guardians as he was traded to the Colorado Rockies for Juan Brito on November 15.

That brings us to the big question though. Did the Guardians give up on Nolan Jones too soon? 

To answer this question, we have to understand why Cleveland traded away a top prospect in their system for so long. 

It reportedly had to do with Jones' strikeouts and swing-and-miss rate. He struck out 31 times while only walking in eight at-bats in his short stint with the Guardians and had a K% of 33.0 percent. 

Yes, that is high. However, the potential to break out and develop into a productive power hitter was always there. 

Now, Rockies fans are getting a taste of what a developed Nolan Jones looks like, leaving some Guardians fans with seller's remorse.

Jones has played in 15 games for Colorado this season and already has already smoked four home runs and driven in 12 RBI. His .711 slugging and 1.087 OPS are exactly the kind of pop the Guardians are begging for in the middle of their lineup. 

Hindsight is 20/20. No one is saying that this production is going to continue and Nolan could always come back down to earth. He still has a 31.5 K% with the Rockies in 2023 which confirms Cleveland's worries. 

I'm happy for Nolan. He's being given an opportunity and shining in that moment. However, it's hard to not look at what Jones has done so far in another uniform and think Cleveland was a little quick to move on from this prospect. 

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Guardians Option James Karinchak, Call Up Tim Herrin

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Photo Credit © Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

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Tommy Wild
TOMMY WILD

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