The Braves announced yesterday that they have hired Chipper Jones as a special assistant to baseball operations. He’ll be a jack-of-all-trades, it seems, helping young players, offering hitting advice and perhaps even doing some scouting. Or, at least, assisting scouts.
When a retired player takes a coaching or front office job with a club, people tend to make the “heh, can he play too?” joke. With Chipper and the Atlanta Braves as currently constructed, I don’t think it’s a joke. I legitimately feel like, with a couple of months of getting-in-shape time, he’d be the Braves second or third best hitter. Not even lying. If they were in the AL and could I’d stump for him to actually make the club.
If you need me, I’ll be over in the corner trying to talk myself into enduring the next couple of years as a Braves fan.