The Cleveland Guardians have always been quite high on Nolan Jones.
They took him in the second round of the 2016 MLB Draft, and he looked like a star in the making.
That’s why the Colorado Rockies agreed to trade star prospect Juan Brito to acquire Jones, and Brito has now emerged as one of Cleveland’s best prospects.
For his part, Jones looked poised to take the game by storm.
He was a strong candidate for NL Rookie of the Year in 2023, posting a .297/.389/.542 slash line with 20 stolen bases and 20 home runs.
Unfortunately, injuries got the best of him, and the Rockies wound up trading him back to the Guardians in return for Tyler Freeman.
Notably, that’s why analyst Nick Pedone predicted the Guardians will give Jones a long leash leading up to the trade deadline.
“Now that [Johnathan Rodriguez] is back for [Jhonkensy Noel], I think he’ll platoon with Nolan Jones. I think get ready for a ton of Nolan Jones from the entire month of June, really most of July, until the trade deadline, because they’re going to really see what they’ve got in this dude. They traded Tyler Freeman for him, one-for-one. They like Nolan Jones. They bring him back to the organization. Now, you get a true look of what he can do in the bigs with consistent at-bats,” Pedone said, via “The BIG Factor.”
Nick does not think we will see Chase DeLauter for a while. #GuardsBall
"Get ready for a ton of Nolan Jones until the trade deadline to really see what they got in this dude."
– @nickpedone12 pic.twitter.com/FNR1bGoDDT
— The BIG Factor (@TheBIGFactor) June 9, 2025
So far, the early returns of his comeback have been far from encouraging.
He’s made 168 plate appearances this season with a slash line of .215/.293/.309.
The Guardians have gotten little production from their right fielders, and that has been one of their most concerning issues so far.
They have a lot of faith in Jones, but it is up to him to prove that he’s worthy of it.
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