Nolan Jones seems primed for a breakout season for Guardians after dismal 2025

Last season Nolan Jones mashed one of the biggest home runs of the Cleveland Guardians’ season. 

While Jones struggled for most of the season and finished the year with a .211/.296/.304 slashline in 136 games, the highlight of his season came on Aug. 27 when he slugged a game-tying home run against Pete Fairbanks and the Tampa Bay Rays. 

While Jones’ 2025 season will always be defined by his overall struggles, the home run was a brief example of the potential that Jones brings to the table. 

The Guardians are going to need to see a lot more of that from Jones in 2026 for him to keep his roster spot thanks to the team’s plethora of young outfield prospects, but his latest comments make it seem like Jones is ready to step up to the plate (pun intended) in 2026. 

Nolan Jones seems poised for a breakout season for the Guardians in 2026 

On Thursday, MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins published a new story featuring an interview with Jones, who pulled back the curtain on his mindset heading into 2026. 

Most notably, Jones said that he’s “been terrible” over the past two seasons and didn’t think that he’d be coming back to the Guardians after his dismal 2025 season. 

But instead of letting Jones go, the Guardians elected to tender him a $3 million contract for 2026 in his first year of arbitration. But just because Jones was tendered a contract for 2026 doesn’t mean that he’s guaranteed a ton of playing time. 

At the time of the homer, the Guardians were 65-66 and 10 1/2 games behind the Tigers in the American League Central. Had the Guardians dropped the game to the Rays, the Guardians would have dropped their fourth straight series. 

Instead, that win set off a sequence where the Guardians won eight of their final nine series and ended up coming back from a 15 1/2 games deficit in the American League Central. 

But most of those wins were done without Jones, who was placed on the injured list at the end of the month due to an oblique strain. 

With Jones on the shelf, the Guardians turned to rookies George Valera and Chase DeLauter, both of whom should get plenty of chances to earn an Opening Day roster spot during the spring. 

Steven Kwan’s locked into a roster spot, but Jones, DeLauter, Valera, Stuart Fairchild, CJ Kayfus, Petey Halpin and Angel Martínez are also vying for a spot. 

In 2023, Jones showed exactly how good he can be when he slashed .297/.389/.542 in 2023 with 20 home runs and 62 RBI. 

But he hasn’t done much of anything since, though he did get off to a hot start this spring with a 421-foot home run against the Brewers on Saturday. 

The penny-pinching Guardians wouldn’t have spent $3 million on Jones if they didn’t think that he’d be able to at least do something in 2026, and it seems like he’s the best headspace possible ahead of what could be a huge season.