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Sunday, August 6, 2006
Spin this: Andruw must stay
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Andruw Jones made it through the weekend without being traded. I never figured that would qualify as news.
John Schuerholz, the Braves’ general manager in charged of dropped balls and disingenuous spin, suggests that this whole Jones’ episode was a media creation (“It was all artificial, not true, manufactured.”). I’m pretty sure this isn’t the first time the media has been blamed for something. But I’ll need to check the monthly log, right after I locate my “agenda,” which I’ve also never found.
Just to clarify — yes, it is normal for baseball teams to put high-profile players on waivers as a way to test the trade market, because they can be pulled back. When players get waived in other sports, it’s to clear locker space. And, true, none of this would have happened if word of Jones’ being dangled hadn’t leaked out.
But this story would not have spun out of control if Schuerholz had merely said, “I’m not trading my best player.” He didn’t. He won’t. Go spin that, John.
This is a man who likes to operate under cover. But there’s something to be said for putting out fires before the bridges burn down. While the game’s best centerfielder and a franchise centerpiece was left dazed by the waiver news and besieged by the media and friends, Schuerholz said only this: “I’ve never commented on waivers in my 25 years and I never will.”
So tell me. How many times in 25 years has the Braves’ star player been so publicly exposed like that? Because I’m thinking it’s, like, zero.
Schuerholz did listen to the Boston Red Sox before the trading deadline (non-waivers) when they asked about Jones. He did listen to whoever else called after the waiver period. His actions and his words scream that he doesn’t view Jones as indispensable, or anything close.
The only other possibility is that the general manager does want to keep Jones but he’s too fearful of what might happen in free agency after next season. Never mind that he could be exploring other ways to make the budget work. Never mind that nobody really knows what the budget will be because of new ownership coming in.
Never mind that for all of the Braves’ concerns of Jones being brainwashed by agent Scott Boras — who would have Mother Teresa withhold services from an orphanage until somebody came up with more jack — Jones is a different bird. The last time around, he ignored Boras’ advice. Nobody knows what Andruw is going to do this time, least of all Andruw.
There’s also this: In sports today, why would any team discard a sure thing?
Nobody plays the field better than Jones (eight straight Gold Gloves). He drives in over 100 runs a year (904 in the last nine seasons, and this one’s not done yet). He plays through injuries (since 1997, he leads the majors in games played).
Jones is not a problem in the clubhouse. He’s not a walking police blotter away from the stadium. His name hasn’t popped up in any drug or steroid investigation in San Francisco. Or Washington. Or Bolivia.
When the Braves needed him most to become a leader during last season’s inordinate run of injuries, he responded with the best season of his career. He had 51 homers and 128 RBIs. He could’ve won the league’s MVP award. He did win the Hank Aaron award. He will be in the Hall of Fame.
It’s hard for celebrities to get away with much these days. Everybody has a camera phone and a Web site. But I think the last time Jones’ name came up in a scandal was the Gold Club trial (and I’m pretty sure admitting that he was 19 when he accepted a come-on from two strippers in a hotel room doesn’t qualify as a scandal. The scandal would have been if he had said no.)
The Braves want to rebuild. That’s fine. But there are guys to cut loose and guys to keep. Jones is the latter. He is 29 years old and in his prime, not 34 and on the downslide. The Braves’ future has a hole without him. That’s real, not artificial.
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