Andruw Jones

Andruw Rudolf Jones (born April 23, 1977) is a Curaçaoan baseball outfielder currently playing for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Nippon Professional Baseball's Pacific League. During his career in Major League Baseball, Jones has been a noted defensive specialist, and won the Rawlings Gold Glove Award for outfielders every year from 1998 through 2007. Jones has appeared in the All-Star Game five times, and he won both the Hank Aaron Award and a Silver Slugger Award for outfielders in 2005. In 2002, he was the inaugural National League (NL) All-Star Final Vote winner.

Jones made his debut during the 1996 season with the Atlanta Braves. In the 1996 World Series, Jones became the youngest player ever to hit a home run in the postseason, and just the second player ever to homer in his first two World Series at bats. The following season, Jones batted .231 with 18 home runs and finished 5th in voting for Rookie of the Year. In 1998, Jones batted .271 with 31 home runs and in 1999, he batted .275 with 26 home runs. Jones batted .303 with 36 home runs and 104 runs batted in (RBIs) in 2000 and made his first All-Star team. The following season, Jones again blasted over 30 home runs and drove in 104 runs but his average dipped to .251 while his strikeouts increased. Jones played better in 2002 and 2003 and made the All-Star team in both seasons. However, Jones struggled in 2004 and failed to hit at least 30 home runs for the first time since 1999. However, in 2005, he led the league with 51 home runs and also led the NL with 128 RBIs. He finished 2nd to Albert Pujols for National League MVP. In 2006, Jones batted .262 with 41 home runs and 129 RBI. In 2007, in his last season with the Braves, Jones batted just .222 with 26 home runs and 94 RBIs.

After the 2007 season, Jones signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a free agent to a 2-year deal, worth $36.2 million. However, Jones struggled with the Dodgers, batting just .158 with 3 home runs and 14 RBIs. Shortly after the season, Jones was released by the Dodgers. Since then, Jones has played for the Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox, and New York Yankees. While with the White Sox, Jones belted his 400th career home run.

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