At long last, Hall voters recognize what we all knew about Andruw Jones

There are 239 former or current major leaguers with at least 2,000 career games played who have a higher batting average than Andruw Jones’ .254, according to Stathead.

Likewise, Jones is 331st on the career base hits list with 1,933.

Not numbers that scream Hall of Famer.

But, Tuesday evening, they became officially irrelevant as Jones received irrevocable confirmation of his greatness — the announcement of his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

And the baseball-related rationale that had most often been used against Jones in his bid for Cooperstown — that his performance fell off drastically at the end of his peak — was itself inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Arguments That Completely Miss the Point.

Jones’ Cooperstown invitation is recognition of the reality that Hall-worthy greatness doesn’t have to take only one form. Cooperstown has long opened its doors to those who produced over a long period of time. It’s evident in the “counting” stats that for decades have guaranteed inclusion for the players who reached them — 500 home runs and 3,000 hits for field-position players, 300 wins and 3,000 strikeouts for pitchers.

And rightfully so.

But voters have been less willing to consider players like Jones — and his Braves center-field predecessor Dale Murphy — whose play shined impossibly bright but for a shorter amount of time.

That mindset, though, is like the Louvre only accepting impressionists. To leave out Jones because his peak, which was plenty long, was followed by a sharp drop-off was to be exceedingly narrow-minded.

Jones’ surpassing greatness in patrolling center field at Turner Field was practically self-evident, not even needing numbers to be understood.

“I think his ability to get a jump on a ball is what separated him from so many people,” Hall of Fame teammate Tom Glavine told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday. “His ability to not only take away a blooper but also get to a ball over his head or in the gap — most guys, it’s one or the other.”

Center fielders could typically choose to play deeper to get to balls in the gaps and to the warning track while giving up softer-hit balls or play more shallower and be susceptible to balls hit over their heads.

“But Andruw seemingly got to both, which is just unbelievable,” Glavine said.

It was not for nothing that, at Jones’ jersey retirement ceremony at Truist Park in 2023, Glavine and fellow Hall of Famer John Smoltz hailed Jones, respectively, as “the best center fielder that’s ever done it” and “the greatest center fielder I’ve ever seen play the game.”

And, really, Jones’ Hall of Fame debate could have well ended there and probably even should have. He was arguably the greatest defender at a key position. Only two outfielders were awarded more Gold Gloves than Jones’ 10 — Roberto Clemente and Willie Mays.

Add onto it that Jones made five All-Star Games, hit 434 home runs, was in the top 20 in voting for National League MVP five times and played on 11 playoff teams and it should have left no room for debate.

But it didn’t because of most voters’ one-track understanding of what Hall of Famers looked like. Specifically, their careers didn’t tail off like Jones’ did.

That — and his guilty plea to disorderly conduct after being arrested on domestic violence charges in 2012, which for some voters was an unforgivable violation of the character clause — kept him out of the Hall in his first eight years on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot. In his first year, in fact, he was named on just 7.3% of the ballot, barely making the 5% he needed to stay on it. It’s actually the lowest first-ballot percentage of a candidate who eventually was voted in by the BBWAA.

“I was lucky,” Jones said Tuesday on a videoconference call with media. “I appreciate all the writers that kept me in there.”

It’s not like there wasn’t plenty of reason to vote him in.

Over a 10-year period between his age-20 and age-29 seasons (1997-2006), he averaged 33.7 home runs per year while winning nine Gold Gloves.

His performance did fall off a cliff after that. He hit a total of 92 home runs over his final six seasons and slugged .420 and hit .214 with one final Gold Glove.

Regardless, docking Jones for his pedestrian finish, as many voters did over the years, is something like not buying a Porsche because you can’t use it to haul lumber.

It’s just not the point.

Credit to Hall voters for finally accepting in greater numbers Jones’ version of baseball greatness. It’s unfortunate that Murphy’s case, which has similarities to Jones’, has not earned enshrinement and may never.

But Jones is in, at long last.

A Braves legend’s greatness has been cemented for all-time.