It's the LA Dodgers who have decided to take a chance on Jones, who's coming off his worst season in the bigs. Last year, the 30-year-old winner of 10 straight Gold Gloves hit just .222 with 26 homeruns and 94 RBI. His OPS fell 170 points as well from 2006, which fell 30 points from his career high in 2005.The move is somewhat surprising considering the jogjam it creates in the LA outfield. They have speedster Juan Pierre in center, promising young bat Andre Ethier in right, another promising (and younger) rightfielder in Matt Kemp, Jason Repko can also play the outfield but was slowed by a foot injury last year, Delwyn Young played sparingly in 2007 but made the most of his 34 at-bats (he hit .382 with an OPS over 1.000) and their leftfielder last season, Luis Gonzalez, remains an unsigned free agent.
So where does Jones fit in? Well, conventional wisdom would say AJ, now their highest-paid outfielder, is going to shift JP, now their second-highest paid outfielder, to left because of his defense. But who plays right- Either, Kemp, Repko, or Young? The answer might depend on a yet-to-be-completed trade. I have to imagine there's plenty of interest out there in Kemp (and third baseman Andy LaRoche for that matter). Does LA now enter the Johan Santana sweepstakes, or go after somebody like Erik Bedard or Dan Haren? Seems to me they should because there just aren't enough ABs to go around for Ethier and Kemp, the two most talented of the group.
As for the specifics of the Jones signing, his 2-year $36.2 million dollar deal is hardly the pay day he (or agent Scott Boras) envisioned after his monster '05 season. And it's actually a bargain considering the Kansas City Royals just gave Jose Guillen the same amount of money, but for 3 years.
Overall, I think this is a shrewd move on behalf of the Dodgers. If Jones' career keeps going south, at least you've upgraded your outfield defense significantly and he's gone after 2009. But if Jones resurrects his career and rediscovers his stroke, then they've just added the bat they were missing all of 2007 and potentially opened the door for a blockbuster deal. With a healthy Rafael Furcal and decent pitching, LA should be in the mix in a tough NL West.
