During the off-season, there didn’t seem to be much of a market for Andruw Jones.
He was coming off of a 75 game season in which he hit .158 with three homers and 14 RBIs, while making a career high $14,726,910, as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Unable to keep a spot in the majors, it seemed like the glory days of Andruw Jones – you know, the 40-50 HRs, 100+ RBIs, and .240-260 average days – were over and it was unlikely his career in baseball would continue with a major league club.
This off-season, the Dodgers released Jones outright, despite him having one year left on his contract.
After becoming unemployed in mid-January, Jones received a phone call from the Texas Rangers, and ended up signing a half a million dollar minor league deal in the beginning of February.
Though a minor league deal, there were plenty of incentives that could rake Andruw in a couple hundred thousand dollars more than his set pay check. For example: if Andruw came to the plate 340 times, he would earn $75,000 and if he was to win the comeback player of the year award, he would be good for another 200K.
Coming to the Rangers, Jones was joining an offensive juggernaut, so his bat would not be counted on as much as it was in Atlanta and Los Angeles, something that could relieve the stress that hampered his play in the previous year.
His main duty would be filling in at DH and the outfield while picking up a starting role if injuries were to take place.
And to this point in the season, he has done just that.
In fact, his performance last night may have been worth more to the Rangers than they thought $500K could buy them.
In a very important division game against the other serious contender in the AL West, the Los Angeles Angels, Jones went off with three home runs and four runs batted in, giving him 14 jacks and 34 RBIs in just 46 games this season.
With Chris Davis being sent down to Triple-A, Hank Blalock will move from DH to first base, leaving the DH spot open for Jones to get a good amount of playing time before the Rangers decide to call Davis back-up or promote interviewee Justin Smoak to the major leagues.
Say Jones duplicates his performance in the second half, adding in five bombs and 15 RBIs, and you have a .250 hitter that is producing with 33 homers and 83 RBIs. Does that sound worth $500K to you?
It should, because it sounds like the comeback player of the year to me.
