Road to The Show™: D-backs’ Druw Jones
Each week, MiLB.com profiles an elite prospect by chronicling the steps he's taken toward achieving his Major League dream. Here's a look at second-ranked D-backs’ prospect Druw Jones. For more stories about players on The Road to The Show, click here.
Druw Jones’ professional career was defined by injuries until a strong -- and more importantly healthy -- 2024 season.
The D-backs’ No. 2 prospect batted .275 with an .814 OPS, 29 extra-base hits and 21 steals in 109 games for Single-A Visalia while playing his usual sparkling center field defense.
The son of 10-time Gold Glove winner Andruw Jones is one of two Top 100 prospects with a 70-grade field tool. In his first pro game last April, the 20-year-old made an incredible running catch that held up as the Defensive Play of the Year.
This year, he recorded seven assists in more than 900 innings at center and unleashed a 94 mph throw during the D-backs’ Spring Breakout game.
Most importantly, Jones was able to stay on the field.
Three days after he signed his first pro deal, the 2022 first-rounder suffered a torn posterior labrum in his left shoulder during batting practice. He was limited to 41 total games, including a rehab stint, in 2023 due to a lingering right quad strain.
“Coming off the past year, with the injuries and just all the stuff he’s dealt with with the hype and everything else, he’s just kind of settled in. … And he’s only getting better,” D-backs farm director Shaun Larkin told MLB.com in July.
Born in Atlanta during his father’s incredible Braves tenure, Jones quickly dealt with lofty expectations and was considered by some scouts to be the best high school prospect since Bryce Harper.
He participated in the 2021 High School All-American Game at Coors Field the same weekend that his father served as the National League’s hitting coach in the All-Star Futures Game.
Jones also played in the 2022 USA Baseball Dream Series prior to his senior season at Wesleyan High School, where he proceeded to hit .445 with a 1.494 OPS, 16 home runs and 14 steals in 38 games. He was named the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year, committed to Vanderbilt and ranked as MLB Pipeline’s top prospect in the 2022 Draft class.
He even went viral for a long homer he hit in high school while being taunted with chants of "overrated" from the opposing team’s student section.
The D-backs selected Jones with the No. 2 overall pick and signed him to a slot-value $8,189,400 bonus, which is still the largest ever given to a high school player. After signing and working back from the shoulder injury, Jones played in his first professional game at Chase Field in Phoenix, where he went 1-for-2 in the D-backs’ Cactus League finale.
He played 10 games with Visalia before the initial quad injury, suffered a flare up during a rehab stint in the Rookie-level Arizona Complex League in June and returned in August for the final 19 games. During that final stretch, Jones batted .296 with an .848 OPS and was able to go into the offseason on a high note.
He returned for Spring Breakout, during which he went hitless in two at-bats, and appeared in one Cactus League game before going back to Visalia for the regular season.
After a slow April, Jones provided consistent production at the plate throughout the summer, which included an appearance in the All-Star Futures Game at Globe Life Field. Jones drew three walks, including one with the bases loaded, and played all nine innings at center field during the prospect showcase.
Toward the end of the season and into the California League playoffs, Jones hit another gear. Over his final 30 games, including the postseason, he hit .301 with an .878 OPS and 21 RBIs while recording more walks (29) than strikeouts (28).
Jones factors heavily into the D-backs' mostly homegrown core, which has been fortified by depth built through the Draft.
Oddly enough, two members of that group, Corbin Carroll and Jordan Lawlar, Arizona’s first-round picks in 2019 and 2022, respectively, suffered similar shoulder injuries just after their Drafts that also cost them a full season. Jones’ eerily similar path should lead him back to Chase Field, especially if he stays healthy.