Nolan Jones getting traded by the Cleveland Guardians highlights concerning trend

Nolan Jones follows in the footsteps of other top Cleveland Guardians prospects who didn’t pan out.

The Cleveland Guardians have said goodbye to yet another top prospect in recent years. While some guys, like Justus Sheffield and Clint Frazier were dealt in trades for top talent, other guys like Bobby Bradley and Bradley Zimmer were just outright released, despite their “potential”. Which scenario is that for Nolan Jones?

Jones was dealt by the Cleveland Guardians this week for Juan Brito, a Low-A prospect from the Colorado Rockies organization who has a solid bat, and pretty good power. He is a middle infielder so that just continues the logjam at there. But we’ll get to that later.

For the Rockies to give up such a vaunted prospect for Jones means they have high hopes for him. This is despite the fact he’s basically made very little impact on the Guardians since 2020. A 2016 draft pick, Jones rose to the top of the charts (so to speak) in 2020 when he was named the club’s top prospect. Then the injuries mounted. First on his right thumb, and then two years later in 2021, on his left ankle.

Jones has struggled in the minors the higher he climbed, and ended up hitting just .244 in the majors with two home runs and only 13 RBIs. Brito, likewise, is a top prospect as well and should be a nice contributor to the club. He’s already been added to the 40 Man roster the Guardians have, and there seems to be hype around him.

This is despite the fact the Guardians are plagued by good middle infielders. Chris Antonetti doesn’t believe that having too many shortstops and second basemen is a problem, but having too many third basemen and corner outfielders? That’s where he seemingly draws the line, telling Cleveland.com;

"We continue to believe that Nolan is going to go on and be a really productive major league player. However, as we started to look at our roster composition for next year of where there may be opportunities for Nolan, maybe his path was a little bit less clear at this point.…It’s not to take anything away from Nolan, we expect him to go on and be a really productive major league player. As we looked toward this year, we just weren’t sure what types of opportunities we’d have at the major league level for him."

Just last year, the Guardians had no reliable outfielders, to the point the team trotted out Framil Reyes and Josh Naylor to play out there from time to time. Now the team has too many options, with Steven Kwan, Oscar Gonzales, and Will Brennan all looking at a time next season, plus the defensive prowess of Myles Straw’s prowling center. Then factor in George Valera and recent draft pick Chase DeLauter, and the outfielder position appears healthier than ever.

The Cleveland Guardians are once again unable to develop a top prospect

Fans of the Guardos may not remember this, but there was a time when the Guardians were wasting draft picks on just the worst prospects possible. For all the good that Mark Shapiro did for the club, most of his success came in the form of trades.

Drafting? Ha, the MLB Draft was just something that got in the way of his summer vacation it felt like. Then when Antonetti took over in 2016, things felt different. Sure, Shapiro landed Francisco Lindor, Clint Frazier, and Triston McKenzie, but he also drafted Zimmer, Drew Pomeranz, Alex White, David Huff, Trevor Crowe, Jeremy Sowers, and Michael Aubrey.

All busts. Drafting was not his forte. It was supposed to be Antonetti, after all, his first draft as club president saw Benson and Jones go back to back. Clearly, there was hype there.

Yet, Jones is gone now. Another failed first-round pick for the Guardians. Sure, Jones might find success elsewhere, but Antonetti doesn’t trade players he doesn’t have to. So if he traded Jones, then it was for good reason.