Roster Review: Adam Jones

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Adam Jones has been a bright spot on this team ever since he came here from the Mariners Erik Bedard trade. He won a Gold Glove in 2009 and we’ve seen his amazing defensive prowess for a while now. But he also does something special at the plate. And his most recent reward comes from Manager Buck Showalter himself as AJ won the Most Valuable Oriole Award this season.

He had one of his best seasons this year batting .280, the 2nd highest of his career, with 25 homers, a career high, and 83 RBI, another career high. He stole 12 bases, a career high, had a .319 on-base percentage, and a .466 slugging percentage, a career high.

He was in the running for a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger award but didn’t make the top 3 in either to be eligible for voting and winning.

He’s one of the best all-around players on the Orioles. I give him an A for the year.

There have been tons of rumors and opinions flying around on whether or not the Orioles should trade AJ. Showalter has come out and said the Orioles won’t be actively shopping Jones, which I think is good. I don’t think the Orioles should throw him out there as someone they want to trade, but I do think they need to be willing to listen to offers. And when I say offers I don’t mean some Double-A and Single-A pitchers I mean a second-tier starting pitcher who’s a proven veteran AND a Triple-A minor league pitcher (or at least a player). The Orioles need a ridiculous deal to trade AJ, sort of like the one they got FOR him.

If he was traded, the Orioles would then face yet another hole in the outfield. We already have no one for left field so who would we have for center? No one. Unless the trade for AJ was basically a swap of center fielders. Or the O’s could go after Grady Sizemore? I don’t know about that.

What I think is going to happen is Jones will remain an Oriole until July and then they’ll hear more, better, offers from teams trying to get that extra leg-up to make it into the postseason and the O’s will deal him then. What do you guys think?