Jones tunes out the noise to better position himself for 2025

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Rockies left fielder Nolan Jones didn’t want his standout 2023 rookie season to end, so he tried to keep it going into the winter.

“I felt that my swing was really, really good,” Jones said. “I would try to keep the feel. I started hitting super early -- and a lot.”

The plan didn’t work. Jones struggled numbers-wise and with a back injury and knee pain in 2024. Add to that his own tendency to press, plus disgusting and threatening social media messages, and the result was a .227 average with three homers in just 79 games.

When it all ended, Jones put the bats away and filled his hands and heart with joy.

“I spent time with my daughter and forgot about baseball for a while,” Jones said.

Rough as baseball was, Jones’ life away from the park was an even greater challenge. He and his fiancée, Morgan Gougher, welcomed their daughter Kamryn on Aug. 4. But fluid in her lungs meant she was on supplemental oxygen for a month. Kamryn became healthy and is still so, and Jones is thankful.

Some time at home in Scottsdale allowed Jones to decompress before working on returning to the player of 2023 -- .297, 20 home runs, 62 RBIs, 20 stolen bases and a fourth-place finish in National League Rookie of the Year voting.

“My priorities got flipped this season -- I had my first daughter, and that's all that matters now,” Jones said. “It’s something that I'm going to use to my advantage -- she doesn't care if I go for 4-for-4. I'm going to go home and get a kiss from her. And we have so many good people in this locker room, I’m just relying on them and rallying around them. That’s what’s going to help us get to the next level.”

When Jones, who turns 27 on May 7, gets past the noise and emotion, it comes down to swinging at the right pitches and driving the ball all over the field.

Strikeouts were a part of his profile before the Rockies acquired him from the Guardians after the 2022 season, and they remain so. He fanned 29.7 percent of the time in ‘23 and 30.6 percent in ‘24. But when Jones’ swing is right, he can drive the ball to the opposite gap or juice an inside pitch -- the type of delivery that gives him trouble when he’s struggling -- over the wall.

“If a player does something one time, he's capable of doing it again,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “With Nolan, the book on him earlier was, ‘Big guy [6-foot-4], long arms … likes to get extended, good power to left-center field. Let's get the fastball in on him, because his swing sets up right-center-field gap to left field. Combat that with inside velocity and breaking stuff down underneath.’

“He made the adjustment in ‘23. He was able to get the head of the bat, catch the ball out front and pull a homer on the breaking ball that didn’t get down and in -- to the right-field corner. He was locked in.”

The state-of-the-art Salt River Fields at Talking Stick has led many of the Rockies to establish offseason homes in Scottsdale. Jones is among them.

Jones took the healthy step of limiting his online interaction to those who care about his life rather than his numbers. Then he spent time away from the park with his friend group.

“We have a good group of guys, and we make up different reasons to throw a party or hang out together,” Jones said. “It’s fun. [We] get together all the time. ... A lot of us have kids, so we had a lot of 1-year-old birthday parties.”