CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Spring training is a time for surprises and discovery.
Fans received a little of both on Monday when the Indians invited No. 1 draft pick Nolan Jones to big-league camp as a non-roster player. Jones, a third baseman, is coming off off-season right thumb surgery, but he’s progressed more quickly than expected, and the Indians are rewarding him for his hard work with his first big-league invite.
It turns out it was a surprise to Jones as well.
“It was funny. I thought he’d already been told that he was coming to camp,” said manager Terry Francona. "I thought we were just going to explain a few things to him. He didn’t know. So we got to start from the beginning.
“You have so many conversations toward the end of camp that are so hard. That was just a pure pleasure. Just to see his eyes light up. I think you need to take a second and enjoy it because you don’t have enough of those.”
Jones hit .253 with eight homers and 22 RBI at Class AA Akron last year. He spent most of the season at Class A Lynchburg where he hit .286 (72-for-252) with 12 doubles, seven homers and 41 RBI. He injured his thumb playing in the Arizona Fall League.
The Indians selected Jones out of high school in the second round in 2016 and gave him an above-slot $2.25 million signing bonus. MLBpipeline.com ranks him as the Tribe’s No. 1 prospect. Jones joins Triston McKenzie, the Tribe’s No. 2 prospect, in camp this spring.
Four of the top seven Indians’ prospects, according to mlb.com, are in camp. Besides Jones and McKenzie, left-hander Logan Allen (No. 4) and first baseman Bobby Bradley (No. 7) are in camp. McKenzie, Allen and Bradley are on the 40-man roster.
Francona’s message to Jones was to enjoy the experience.
“I’ve heard so many good things about this kid from everybody,” said Francona. "Now for ever long he’s here, we just want him to be a sponge. Watch how guys do thing.
“I told him, ‘I don’t know how my at-bats you’re going to get. I hope you get some hits because it’s fun to watch guys get hits, but that’s not going to define who you are. You’re getting ready for the season.’
“The one thing I did tell him -- because Johnny Mac (John McDonald, minor league field coordinator) tells him every year that he isn’t ready for the major leagues. I told him, ‘Now that you’re where you are, you’re starting to bump up to the major leagues, the next step. That gets pretty exciting.'”
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