Saturday notes: Andruw Jones: fourth outfielder?

Well folks, it would seem reports of my departure from HWC have been greatly exaggerated. That's right folks, Jon is back - well, on Saturdays anyway. Maybe if John Paul lets me, we can even have select "Jon-out" weekends (Internet hi-five on the red-unis pun? Anyone?)

I'm glad to be back, even if it is on a limited basis - frankly I'm quite flattered that John Paul thought enough of my work last week to bring me back for a bench role. It could be a week-to-week deal for now (due to my own personal responsibilities) and I'm not sure as of yet what a typical Saturday post for me might entail (I'm used to more regular playing time) but I hope you, the reader, will bear with me while I make it up as I go.

Seeing as how I missed half the games this week (and it seems kind of senseless to do a solitary mid-week game report) for this morning I figured I'd take the easy way out and tackle this past weeks hotbutton issue: Andruw Jones. Wait, that is the easy way out, right?

I penned (okay, typed) my initial thoughts on the subject when the hoopla broke last weekend, and they really haven't changed a whole lot - I'm admittedly still in the camp that fears a "Sammy Sosa redux" could conceivably have playing time ramifications on just about everyone but Josh Hamilton in the Rangers 1B/DH/OF mix.

As we've learned this week (and perhaps already knew before) the driving force behind the Rangers sudden change of heart on Jones has apparently been hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo - with Ron Washington and more importantly Nolan Ryan also grabbing seats up front on the "save-Andruw" bus. Seeing the influential Ryan stamp his seal of approval on the project isn't exactly a soothing development for those of us who where wishing this Jones issue would simply go away on it's own - which it's not, as it was also announced this week that Jones status had been upped to possible cleanup hitter against left-handers. Jones started at cleanup on Tuesday going a respectable 2-6 (including a double) as the Mariners started lefty Jarrod Washburn.

Things got even more interesting last night as Washington started Jones at cleanup again - this time against right-hander Dave Bush (so much for the cleanup consideration being against lefties only, perhaps?). Jones went an anemic 0-5 with three strikeouts at the plate, including the dubious fate of striking out looking to end the game. Good news for anyone who's still hoping this whole thing will fail before it gets started - but that wasn't really the keynote of Jones night, at least not in my opinion. Of particular note was the position Jones started at - not DH or CF, but left field, a locale which Jones has not officially seen since 1997 (at least according to Baseball Reference).

It would appear Washington is getting increasingly creative in his attempts to fit Jones into the lineup and increase his versatility as spring training winds down - which can't be a bad thing if Jones does make the roster, and it could also ease the fears of Jones possibly stealing AB's from Chris Davis (whose bat has finally awoken this week). Which leads me at least, to wonder if the plan is evolving here, trending toward making Andruw the fourth outfielder - and what such a scenario might entail.

At first glance, getting Jones get work in left to look at him as a backup makes a certain measure of sense. David Murphy's .669 OPS against left-handed pitching last year left more than a little to be desired and there's no question Murphy could use - and probably should have - a right-handed platoon partner, a role Jones would seem to be an ideal fit for given his career numbers against left-handed pitching. The caveat however, is that the Rangers haven't expressed any interest in platooning Murphy despite the blatant splits. In fact it, if we're to believe TR Sullivan's claim back on March 20th that "There were never any doubts about Murphy or Hamilton" claiming outfield spots coming into the spring, it would seem an attempt to resurrect Jones as a part-time outfielder could actually be more likely to cut into the playing time of Nelson Cruz - and that's the last thing Cruz needs as he makes a final bid for a starting job with the Rangers this season. Is that reaching? Perhaps, but then again perhaps not. I personally find it extremely hard to believe that if Jones makes the team after all this fuss, he'll be religated strictly to a platoon/backup role whether he's DH'ing or playing the outfield. I think he's going to get as significant an amount of time as Wash can possibly afford him, to allow Rudy every opportunity to work with his latest pet project.

Then of course there's Marlon Byrd, who stands to be the real loser in this hypothetical scenario - if he's kept around. About a week and a half ago, it was Byrd who was pushing Jones off the roster, but the newfound zeal of the Jaramillo/Washington/Ryan triumvirate concerning the Jones experiment has seemingly reversed that line of thinking this week. If Andruw where to wind up ticketed with the backup role in the outfield, it would push Byrd (who put up a career-best 123 OPS+ in 2008) to the sporadic role of 5th outfielder - which doesn't really make much sense, because Byrd can do everything Andruw can and then some at this juncture in their careers. The only other option would be to find preseason trade for Byrd. Which, with the seeming urgency of the quest to try and find a spot for Andruw on the roster, could perhaps be the real endgame here - the Rangers could admittedly really use another bullpen arm, especially now in the wake of Dustin Nippert's injury and Brendan Donnelly's release, and Byrd could be an attractive option for a team looking to add some quality outfield depth.

Again, there's a catch however: if you can't find a deal for Byrd, or your deal falls through you could be left with two outfielders whom the manager needs to get part-time playing time in the outfield, leading to an even worse logjam.

To sum things up, putting Andruw in the outfield doesn't really eliminate or solve any of the possible playing time conflicts that will arise over the course of Rudy's quest to fix him - at best it transfers some of them to Murphy and Cruz instead of focusing them on Blalock and Davis. To me though, that rather seems like throwing a blanket over the white elephant in your living room. Bottom line is, I just don't see how we can undertake Jones as a reclamation project without it being a detriment - and ultimately I don't think Andruw will return to enough of his former glory to to make it worth our while in the end.