The timing might not be right for Chipper Jones to join the Braves as a hitting coach.
Jones, who recently moved to Texas, appeared on 680 The Fan radio station Thursday morning and was questioned about a possible return to baseball following his retirement.
Jones endorsed the work of current hitting coaches Greg Walker and Scott Fletcher but feared they may be scapegoats in the fallout of the Braves September collapse that has left them eliminated from the postseason.
“I’ll listen but I can’t promise anything,” Jones told the station. “It would have to be the perfect situation. I don’t know that I’m ready to get back into uniform full-time at this particular time. Obviously, just moving 1,500 miles across the country, it’s a little bit of bad timing but I bleed red, white and blue. I always have.
“I’ve always thought that I would be a fairly decent hitting coach at some point but I don’t know. I would certainly listen because I’m a Brave through and through and I want to see the guys do well. I’ve gotten a lot of pressure from guys who are in Atlanta now but I can’t say yes or no right now.”
Jones said he has not been contacted by the Braves about a position with the team.
Jones went on to say that ultimately it is the players who failed this season.
“I feel bad for Walk and Fletch because they are very, very good,” Jones said. “I would endorse them to other teams if asked. In this day and age, you have to blame it on somebody. But if I were a player, I would certainly endorse those guys and put the blame back on the players themselves.”
Jones, in his usual candid manner, said he was glad to have Bobby Cox back in the fold. Cox will join with president John Schuerholz and interim general manager John Hart in the search for a replacement for Frank Wren, who was fired this week. He also endorsed the work of current manager Fredi Gonzalez.
“I’m not sold on the fact that Bobby was sold on wanting to leave when he left,” Jones said. “I think there was a lot of friction between he and Frank Wren back in the day. It’s not a coincidence that Bobby is now back in the fold. I would love to see him in some way, shape or form have some influence or have some say so in personnel. I think he was the catalyst that built our minor-league system up in the early 90’s. He drafted all of us – myself, (Ryan) Klesko, (Javy) Lopez … it was right on down the line. I would like him to have that influence, as well as Fredi (Gonzalez).
“You know, Fredi is the manager of this ball club and he had very little say so in some of the personnel changes. If you are the manager you need to have some say so in the tools that are going to help you win ball games on a nightly basis. I can’t say 100 percent, I can say in my opinion, from time to time Fredi was probably told who needs to play. Obviously when you have guys who are making 11, 12, 14, 15 million dollars you want to give those guys an opportunity to play their way out of (slumps). I think Fredi did everything he could to get Dan Uggla through his struggles and now trying to get B.J. Upton through his struggles. But you have to draw that fine line between giving those guys a chance to swing their way out of it and try to win ball games and stay in contention. I don’t know.
“Let me say this about Frank Wren. Nobody worked harder at his job than Frank Wren. Sometimes he might have worked too hard almost to a fault because he was trying so hard to have the hitters do well, have the pitchers do well, have the relievers (do well), that he may have stepped on a toe now and them. You can’t argue with the results. We’ve had a chance to win every year that Frank was here just about. It was time for a changing of the guard, I guess.”
