The infielder was acquired in March for Joe Rock and has some big league potential
28. Greg Jones (91 points, 18 ballots)
The trade that brought Jones from Tampa Bay to Colorado in exchange for former PuRP Joe Rock in March 2024 was a head-scratcher for Rockies fans, as Colorado was trading from a perpetual weakness (starting pitching depth close to the big leagues) for an up-the-middle athlete who is three years older (he’ll turn 27 in March). In fact, he’s the oldest player on this PuRPs list. A year later, I think we’re still confused. Rock is a Triple-A starter with potential while Jones appears to fall short of an everyday player role due to a poor hit tool.
The switch-hitting shortstop/outfielder had been a top-100 prospect for the Rays as recently as 2022 (when he was added to their 40-man roster), but he hadn’t yet harnessed his considerable tools into a big-league contributor five years after he was Tampa Bay’s first-round pick (22nd overall) out of UNC-Wilmington. However, it must also be said that Jones does possess excellent tools — top of the scale 80 speed, great range defensively at multiple up-the-middle positions, and above-average raw power.
Jones’ prospect journey has been impacted by the pandemic (no 2020 season) as well as injuries that have limited him to 359 minor league games in five seasons. That likely has contributed to Jones’ struggles at the plate, as he has struck out in over a third of his professional plate appearances. Still, he’s stolen 160 bases in 182 attempts (88%) in the minors, including a 46 of 49 tally in 2024. Leading up to the trade, Jones had made it to Triple-A in 2023, where he was a league average offensive performer (101 wRC+) with a .278/.344/.468 line.
In 2024 with Albuquerque, Jones replicated that production (100 wRC+) in the friendly confines of the Pacific Coast League with a .269/.346/.460 line with 16 HR among his 35 XBH. That’s despite an unspecified injury that cost him about a month of action from late April to late May. Jones mostly played center field in Albuquerque (63 of 85 games) with a smattering of shortstop and second base action, committing a total of 12 errors (five in the infield) with seven outfield assists, including this absolute gem of a double play:
Shortly after getting back from the IL, Jones was needed at the big-league level in early June after a rash of injuries hit the Rockies. Jones only appeared in six games with the Rockies in 13 days and made only six plate appearances, starting just one game (he only played five innings in that one). In his final major league plate appearance to date, Jones got his first hit — a home run clobbered from the left side of the plate — in the ninth inning on the losing end of a blowout. In fact, Jones had the ultimate Three True Outcomes big-league season: four strikeouts, a walk, and a homer. Because of that, Jones technically owns a 1.133 OPS in his big league career and 0.1 rWAR, which was tied for 21st on the Rockies for the year.
There’s not a lot of recent scouting video on Jones, but here he is hitting a walk-off homer for Albuquerque:
Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs wrote up Jones as a 35+ FV prospect (32nd in the system) earlier this month, with an 80 speed grade and a 70 future fielding grade to go along with 55 raw power (oh, and a 20 hit tool):
Jones is among the most fun to watch players in the minors. He’s a top-of-the-scale athlete who plays spectacular (albeit inconsistent) defense at several positions, and he has incredible speed and above-average raw power. Now 26, Jones still hasn’t made progress in a few key areas, namely his infield hands and arm accuracy, and his contact hitting. He hit .267/.344/.453 in his first season in the Rockies system, but K’d at a 35.5% clip, which is actually a good bit better than his 2023 rate (38.8%). Jones swings pretty hard and can tag a fastball, but he’s hapless against secondary stuff; this is the kind of guy who’d hit .180 or so with regular reps.
At a certain point it was feasible that a young, switch-hitting Jones would make meaningful progress in this area, but that hasn’t happened. Instead, it’s via his speed and defense that Jones remains relevant. Though he struggled with flubs and underthrows, Jones was developed solely at shortstop for his first four years in the Rays system and wasn’t given run in center field until 2023. Traded to Colorado for Joe Rock that offseason, he’s now been exposed to a mix of CF/SS/2B and sometimes plays all three like your friendly neighborhood Spiderman, with highlight-reel acrobatics. Too often, though, Jones is flub-prone on the infield, and his throwing is much, much better from the outfield, where his relative inexperience still sometimes shows. He’s below average at short and has played just eight games at second, but Jones is such an unbelievable athlete that I’m still betting he becomes a very special defensive center fielder in his late 20s. He still has value as a late-game runner and defender.
Jones clearly has big-league tools and could likely serve as a speed-and-defense reserve right now for the Rockies. In fact, that’s what I think he’ll be for Colorado in 2025, playing all over the field in late game defense and pinch running scenarios but not seeing a ton of plate appearances. I don’t know that anything more is likely given the long road it’s been to get to this point, but if Jones actually does improve his contact rate (so he’s striking out more like 25% of the time instead of 35%) he’s a potential impact big leaguer. I ranked Jones just off my list as a 40 FV player because of the floor his defense provides as well as the ceiling his power/speed combination presents.