The Cleveland Guardians screwed up trading Nolan Jones for Juan Brito

Former Cleveland Guardians player Nolan Jones is going off this season.

The Cleveland Guardians made the move in the offseason to move on from Nolan Jones and dealt him to the Colorado Rockies for Juan Brito. The move was done due to Jones’ struggles at the plate. According to Sports Illustrated, the Guardos did this because Jones was striking out too much and not getting enough hits.

And you know what, that’s fair. Jones was a strikeout machine. In 2018, he had 131 strikeouts in 120 games and then followed that up in 2019 with 148 strikeouts in just 120 games. That strikeout rate really never got better, and despite that, was called up to the main roster in 2022.

Jones struggled, with splits of just 244/.309/.372 and an OPS of .681. He wasn’t great, was sent back down to Columbus, and eventually traded. The trade brought in Brito, who is a 21-year-old middle-infielder with a history of getting hits and not striking out as much.

Basically, the inverse of Jones historically. And the deal looked good at the time. At the time. Because Jones is giving the Guardians buyer’s remorse.

The Cleveland Guardians may regret moving Nolan Jones

Jones is having a great start to his tenure in Colorado. In just 21 games with the main club, Jones’ hitting splits look impressive; .324/.400/.563 and with an OPS of .963. Now, you may be thinking, “Yeah, but it’s been 20 games, he’ll cool off”. And listen, you may be right. That’s what I thought too when looking at his early Triple-A numbers, but he’s been hitting this well all season.

In Triple-A Albuquerque, Jones’ hitting splits were  .356/.481/.711 and an OPS of 1.193. He’s still striking out more than you’d want, but his rate has decreased. In 2018, 30.6% of at-bats ended in a strikeout, while in 2019 it was 34%, in 2021 it was 35% (he didn’t play any official baseball games in 2020), and in 2022, across both Columbus and Cleveland, he struck out 31%.

So far in 2023, he’s only striking out 30% of the time. It’s not as low as you’d want, but it’s getting lower. And if he’s making up for it by hitting .324, then you take it.

Maybe those numbers don’t stay up all season, maybe they do, but right now considering how bad some guys have been for the Guardians, they could certainly use someone like Jones.

• Published on 06/19/2023 at 01:00 AM
• Last updated at 06/19/2023 at 01:00 AM