What Could be the Role for Nolan Jones?

Now that the Prodigal Son has returned, could there be newfound hope for the former top prospect?

Just this last weekend, the Guardians reunited with an old friend in Nolan Jones, trading Tyler Freeman to the Rockies in exchange for him.

The former top prospect for the Guards was dealt for a now prominent 2nd baseman in the farm — Juan Brito.

At the time, many were speculating the reason as to why they made this move. And these speculations grew even more-so as Jones had a great rookie campaign in 2023.

Juan became a highly-touted prospect in the Guardians system in 2023 as well, but it seemed as though the team lost that trade early on. Brito was making decent progress in the system, but NoJo was playing like the top prospect Cleveland hoped him to be — until he wasn’t.

There were some warning signs indicating some form of luck leaning towards Jones’ side on offense, as he posted an unsustainable .401 BABIP.

Nolan went on to have a mediocre 2024 campaign, but many within the Rockies fandom have played the injury card on him, as he played for just under half the entire season. Rox fans thought that he still was the Nolan Jones that they saw in 2023.

And for the most part, I agree.

Although Jones got more hits than he ultimately deserved, he still launched 20 homers and put up excellent slugging numbers (and according to his splits, they were better on the road than at home in Denver where the ball soars off the bat). But most of all, he had a .362 xwOBA, which really put his value in the upper echelon of rookies in 2023.

Altogether, Nolan Jones’ 2023 season led to Colorado fans abiding hope for him despite his injury-riddled 2024 season. And it did the same for the Guardians, who came running back when an opportunity presented itself.

So, do the Guardians see the 2023 Nolan Jones returning to be that long-lost right fielder for the team, or do they believe they could use him in a different but just as important role?

For me, I believe that Nolan can really serve as a platoon partner for Jhonkensy Noel at the very least. His 2024 season, although he was hurt, have revealed even more uneven splits for Jones and might show that he should focus most of his efforts into platoon hitting. Notably, he still raised his hard-hit rate (by 4%), lowered his whiff rate (by 10%) and raised his in-zone contact rate (by almost 9%) in 2024 from 2023.

There is still a decent enough chance for Nolan to just mash both righties and lefties like he did in 2023. But for now, it does seem like Stephen Vogt will try to use him mostly against righties, which should maximize his production.

As for his defense, Jones’ arm is, like the old days, a huge asset in the outfield. He has an absolute cannon and can really gun a runner down at third from deep right field if he wanted to.

All in all, I was really concerned about how the Guardians would address the outfield in the offseason. I thought that it was an absolute failure on their part (especially with the recent DeLauter injury) until they went and traded for Nolan. This was a huge re-acquisition for the Guardians and I can’t wait to see NoJo playing regular season ball for the team again!