Nolan

Jones

It’s the first spring roundtripper for Jones. The 27-year-old outfielder was atrocious in 2025 with a .211/.296/.304 slash with five homers, but he’s not long removed from being one of the more intriguing outfielders in baseball. Still, fantasy managers would be right to take a wait-and-see approach in this situation.

Fry underwent surgery to repair a deviated septum and fractured nose and missed the postseason after being hit in the face by a fastball from Tarik Skubal. Jones will likely be a platoon outfielder for Cleveland in 2026, while Festa should again work in the middle innings.

It’s likely a season-ending injury for Jones, even if Cleveland winds up making the postseason. The 27-year-old corner outfielder has batted just .211/.296/.304 with five homers and eight steals in 136 games.

Jones’ home run was just his fifth of the year. While the 27-year-old outfielder has been a bust this year, he displayed all the skills that made him an interesting fantasy entity before the season on Friday. Jones hit a solo home run off tiring starter George Kirby in the seventh inning and lead-off the ninth inning with a double as the tying-run. Jones is hitting .219 with a .632 OPS and 31 RBI on the season.

Kyle Manzardo had the game-ending hit off Griffin Jax after the Rays failed to score in their half of the 10th. Jones already had a single on the day before his 428-foot blast. It was just his second start in seven games, but he might have a bigger role going forward with the Guardians seemingly partly or fully moving on from Carlos Santana. Jones is batting just .215/.309/.305 in 344 plate appearances, but Statcast thinks he’s been pretty unlucky. Today’s homer was only his fifth, even though he has 18 barrels. His hard-hit rate sits at 47%, and his 26.7% strikeout rate, while not great, is considerably better than his career mark of 30.4%.

Kwan will sit out his second straight contest after receiving an anti-inflammatory injection during the All-Star break to address a lingering right wrist injury. The 27-year-old outfielder might wind up sitting out a few additional games, but we’re not forecasting an extended absence. It’ll be Nolan Jones taking over in left field on Saturday afternoon in his absence.

The Athletics will then follow with Luis Severino on Saturday and Jeffrey Springs on Sunday, which means Jacob Lopez will start on Monday against the Rangers. The Guardians are a platoon-heavy team, so getting two left-handed starters on the weekend means hitters like Nolan Jones and Kyle Manzardo are likely to be on the bench.

Jones smacked a two-out triple off of Jonathan Cannon in the eighth inning but wound up stranded there. He then led off the seventh inning with a single and scored the go-ahead run on an RBI double off the bat of Angel Martinez. With his two-hit effort, Jones is now hitting .233/.320/.338 with just three homers, 23 RBI and six stolen bases on the season.

Thomas will get some extra time off to rest and recover after making an early exit from Friday’s game with mild plantar fascia symptoms. The 29-year-old outfielder is presumably day-to-day heading into Sunday’s series finale. It’ll be Nolan Jones shifting over to cover center field with rookie Johnathan Rodríguez entering the lineup in right field.

Even with the Guardians facing a right-handed pitcher, Jones will head to the bench with Angel Martinez playing center field and Lane Thomas shifting over to right field. Jones’ swing decisions and contact metrics look good, but he’s hitting just .238/.340/.357 in 18 games in June with one home run and one steal. He can be left on the wire in most leagues.