Andruw Jones

While with the White Sox, Jones hit his 400th career home run.

Andruw Rudolf Jones (born April 23, 1977) is a Curaçaoan former professional baseball center fielder who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), most notably for the Atlanta Braves.

Jones also played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox, and New York Yankees, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.

Jones was born on April 23, 1977, in the capital city of Willemstad on the Caribbean island nation of Curaçao.

By the age of 11, Jones was on a youth select team that traveled all the way to Japan to play in a tournament.

He could handle any position on the field, but because of his powerful arm, Jones often found himself at catcher or third base.

He switched to the outfield a couple of years later.

Jones signed with the Atlanta Braves organization as a free agent in 1993 at the age of 16.

Jones was promoted to Danville of the Appalachian League after only 27 games with the Braves farm team in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Jones played for Class-A Macon in 1995.

In his first at bat, he belted a homer.

He finished the season with 25 home runs and 100 runs batted in.

Jones also led the South Atlantic League with 56 steals.

His outstanding season was capped off when he was named Minor League Player of the Year.

Jones made his MLB debut during the 1996 season with the Atlanta Braves.

In the 1996 World Series, he 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 finished fifth in voting for Rookie of the Year.

The Braves brought Jones up to Atlanta on August 15, 1996, when he was just 19 years old.

In his first career Major League game, Jones went 1-for-5 with a run batted in and a run scored.

In his second game, he went 2-for-5 with a home run and a triple.

He had his first multi-homer game against the Reds on August 22.

He spent his early time in the majors playing in right field because established center fielder Marquis Grissom was already entrenched in the position.

He finished the season batting .217 with five home runs and 13 RBIs.

Jones was selected to the Braves' postseason roster in 1996.

Jones was a noted defensive specialist for most of his career and won the Rawlings Gold Glove Award for outfielders every year from 1998 through 2007.

He had a strong throwing arm in addition to his elite fielding.

From 1998 to 1999, he continued to increase his offensive production, and in 2000, Jones batted .303 with 36 home runs and 104 runs batted in (RBIs), making his first All-Star team.

Jones started to draw many comparisons to Willie Mays and was considered one of the top center fielders in baseball.

He proved to be a top defensive player, leading all center fielders in putouts and total zone runs five years in a row from 1998 to 2002.

In 2001, he again hit over 30 home runs and drove in 104 runs but his average dipped to .251 while his strikeouts increased.

Jones improved with All-Star seasons in 2002 and 2003, but in 2004, he failed to hit at least 30 home runs for the first time since 1999 and exceeded 100 strikeouts, which became a regular occurrence thereafter.

He was an MLB All-Star five times, and he won both the Hank Aaron Award and a Silver Slugger Award for outfielders in 2005.

In 2005, he led the National League (NL) with 51 home runs and 128 RBIs, finishing second to Albert Pujols for NL Most Valuable Player.

In subsequent seasons, his average continued to dip and his strikeouts increased.

After a productive season in 2006, including a career- high 129 RBIs, in 2007 Jones had his weakest season to that point, batting just .222.

During his time with Atlanta, Jones became one of the youngest players in MLB history to reach 300 career home runs.

After the 2007 season, Jones signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a free agent to a two-year deal, worth $36.2 million.

However, Jones struggled with the Dodgers, batting just .158 with three home runs and 14 RBIs.

Shortly after the season, Jones was released.

Jones concluded his MLB career with brief stints for the Rangers, White Sox, and Yankees, transitioning from a center fielder to designated hitter and a fourth outfielder role.