Chipper Jones Doesn’t Want Retirement Talk To Obscure Braves Season
Holding court in front of his locker Thursday afternoon, Chipper Jones said, “I just want to put the cork back in the bottle” regarding the talk about his presumed impending retirement. While that isn’t likely to achieve the desired effect, Chipper won’t accommodate those looking for him to discuss the subject - claiming he won’t address his career status again until the season is over.
Jones told the assembled media that he didn’t want to take the focus off a Braves team currently sitting at first place in the NL East, or from Bobby Cox’s final season as manager for that club. He said that he had met earlier in the day with team president John Schuerholz.
Read Article >Chipper Jones Strongly Considering Retirement After 2010
Worth noting is that Jones is currently under contract for $13m in 2011 and $13m in 2012. For him to retire after 2010, he would be walking away from a lot of money. But money is one thing of which Jones has no shortage, and if he feels he can no longer produce at a Major League level, he’ll call it quits to spare everyone the disappointment.
It’s been quite the fall from 2008, when Chipper led the bigs with a .364 average and a .470 OBP. Those two figures dropped to .264 and .388 in 2009, and currently stand at .228 and .375. The discipline remains, but his bat speed and agility in the field have slipped, to the point at which he’s hardly an approximation of the star player he once was. And given where he is in terms of years, it’s hard to imagine things suddenly turning around.
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