CLEVELAND -- As Nolan Jones looked to get going amid a tough start to the 2025 season, he found himself going to extra lengths while searching for answers offensively. He was bringing work home with him, from taking a ton of dry swings in his mirror to poring over video to break down his swing.
“My fiancée was like, ‘This is terrible. I'm sick of this,’” Jones said. “And so, about a week ago, I stopped watching video [at home], stopped doing all the extra swings and everything and just tried to hit some line drives up the middle in the cage and have had some results.”
Put another way: "I think I started trying less hard,” Jones said.
Jones’ less-is-more strategy has come amid his strongest stretch of the season offensively, which continued on Sunday in the Guardians’ 4-2 win over the Angels at Progressive Field. The 27-year-old went 2-for-3 with a two-run single in the fourth inning, which gave Cleveland a four-run lead. That cushion loomed large in the rubber match of the three-game series
Jones also singled in the third and reached on an error by Angels shortstop Zach Neto in the sixth. Sunday marked his fourth straight game with a hit and fourth straight game with an RBI. The latter is a career high.
Jones’ slow start at the plate this season is no secret. Over his first 37 games, he went 14-for-92 and slashed .152/.271/.283. Over his past 16 games, he’s gone 16-for-48 and slashed .333/.340/.375.
“That's all we want to do -- is get hits and score runs and get RBIs and hit home runs,” Jones said. “So seeing a couple fall definitely feels good. It takes a little weight off your shoulders and allows you to play more free.”
Struggling at the plate is frustrating for any hitter, certainly when the results don’t match the process. To that end, some tough luck can explain at least part of Jones’ slow start, and improved fortune is at least in part behind the tide turning recently.
• In his first 37 games through May 13, Jones had a .211 batting average on balls in play. Since May 14, his BABIP is .400.
• Through May 13, Jones had a 48.3 percent hard-hit rate and a 92.3 mph average exit velocity (on 60 batted balls). Since May 14, he has a 50 percent hard-hit rate and a 90.5 mph average exit velocity (on 40 batted balls).
Jones has hit the ball hard consistently this season. He entered Sunday with a 92.9 mph average exit velocity (93rd percentile) and a 49.5 percent hard-hit rate (83rd percentile) -- both of which led the Guardians. His game-tying two-run single in the eighth inning on Wednesday vs. the Dodgers was a ground ball with a 95.8 mph exit velocity hit through the left side of the infield.
The Guardians have struggled to get production out of right field this season (.180/.230/.284 slash line), making Jones’ underlying numbers so tantalizing. He has seemed due for a turnaround, which would give Cleveland’s lineup another strong presence.
“[Nolan] hits the ball really hard. We know that,” manager Stephen Vogt said this weekend. “He's had good at-bats, just hasn't gotten the results. It was nice to see him get a three-hit day on Wednesday. It was nice to see him get three results. And I think just a day like that can get you going.
“It reminds you, ‘Yes, I still can get hits,’ because you start to wonder sometimes. You're hitting the ball hard, you're hitting it all over the place, but it's always getting caught. So we know what Nolan's capable of, and I think he's getting ready to break out.”
Jones’ single in the third on Sunday was a liner to center with a 95.1 mph exit velocity. His two-run knock in the fourth was a liner to center with a 99.6 mph exit velocity. Both came off sinkers by Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz.
The grounder that Jones hit in the sixth, which Neto booted for an error, only had a 73.8 mph exit velocity. But if any hitter is due for a break, it’s Jones.
“When it's not going well, it's easy to be nitpicky and try to find what's going wrong,” Jones said. “And ultimately, we're all good enough in that locker room, and most likely there's not much going wrong. You're probably late or whatever. And so I think sometimes just the best answer might be simplifying.”