We’ve seen enough of Nolan Jones to know he shouldn’t make the Cleveland Guardians roster originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Cleveland Guardians need to admit that the Nolan Jones experiment is over. Once considered a top prospect in the Guards’ development system, the former prospect showed some potential as a rookie in 2022. He’d end up hitting .244 with two home runs and 12 RBI in just 26 games. There was a lot of optimism about what Jones could become, but the Guards would end up giving up on him pretty fast.
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He was traded in 2023 to the Colorado Rockies for second baseman Juan Brito. A player who, like Jones, hasn’t really shown much in the way of consistent high-caliber play. Jones would get a shot at the main roster after the trade and did pretty well. He’d finish the 2023 season with splits of .297/.389/.542, an OPS of .931. All while hitting 20 home runs and driving in 62 RBIs. It looked like Jones was about to break out.
But then 2024 happended and all of that progress went out the window. This caused the Rockies to ship him back to the Guardians in 2025. It wouldn’t be a return to form, as he’d struggle to stay on the field with his poor hitting. His batting average dropped to .211, and his production dropped across the board. He was no longer working counts like he used to and was walking viewer times per game.
Not only were his base-on-balls down, but his strikeouts were an issue. They weren’t career highs, but considering how poorly he was playing overall, 113 strikeouts were just way too many for someone not contributing in a major way. He was fourth on the team in that stat, but every other player who had more strikeouts also had considerably more at-bats than he did.
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Making his strikeout number all the more worrying.
There was hope, albeit not much hope, that Jones could come into Spring Training and have a strong showing. After all, that 2023 season did happen, so why couldn’t he bounce back and come back to form finally? That hasn’t been the case, however, and Jones has looked worse than ever.
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So far through nine games played, Jones is 3-26 with one home run. He’s hitting just .115 so far, and is leading the team in strikeouts with 13. He’s getting plenty of action to see if he can turn things around, and he keeps failing to produce. Only two players, Carter Kieboom and Milan Tolentino, have played in more games than Jones.
Despite that, no one, not even Kieboom or Tolentino, has had more plate appearances than Jones. The outfielder has more attempts at success than anyone else on the Guardians roster. This isn’t a case of him not getting reps; it’s simply a case that he’s not making the most of his time out there.
At 27, this is who Jones is. The Guardians could hope that he hits his way out of this slump, but considering who he is and what he’s done in his career, there’s no reason to believe anymore that he can hit his way out of a terrible slump like this.
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The Guardians can’t waste a roster spot on a guy like Jones, who likely isn’t going to produce in any meaningful way. It’s time to make the hard decision and say goodbye to Jones and leave his roster spot open for someone who can help this lackluster offense produce in 2026.
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