Two months after making his major league debut with the Atlanta Braves, 19-year-old Andruw Jones had two home runs and five RBIs in Game 1 of the 1996 World Series at Yankee Stadium. It was a coming-out party for a player who would hit 434 home runs and be widely regarded as the greatest defensive center fielder of his era and perhaps all time.

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Jones played 17 seasons with five teams and two years in Japan but is most remembered for 13 years with Atlanta including a decade (1998-2007) in which he won 10 consecutive Gold Gloves while averaging 34 homers, 103 RBIs and 158 games played. He won the Players’ Choice MLB Player of the Year Award in 2005 after leading the majors with 51 home runs.

Jones is now a Braves special assistant in baseball operations, and his 18-year-old son, Druw, is a center fielder at Wesleyan High in Norcross, an Atlanta suburb, and the No. 1 prospect for the upcoming June MLB draft.

Jones was a guest this week on The Athletic’s 755 Is Real podcast with hosts David O’Brien and former Braves reliever Eric O’Flaherty. During an 80-minute discussion, he talked about his career, his son’s future, the Braves’ 2021 World Series win, labor negotiations, the return of Ronald Acuña Jr. from knee surgery, and the lingering situation with unsigned free agent Freddie Freeman and the possibility that the longtime Braves first baseman could sign elsewhere.

Here are excerpts from the podcast interview, edited for length and clarity.

On what it’s been like seeing his son become the No. 1-rated draft prospect:

I don’t know how baseball is in high school, but he looks like he’s having fun, and that’s all that matters. If the kid loves the game, and he’s going out there having fun every day, I’m fully for it.

On the Perfect Game scouting group’s report, which said, in part, that Druw has a long, lean athletic build, “outstanding defensive actions in the outfield, glides to the ball with advanced footwork and athleticism, plenty of arm and plus accuracy, pure center field tools” and that offensively he has an “easy low-tension swing with plus bat speed and plenty of impact at contact” and is a “polished hitter who can drive the ball to all fields, projects as a hitter as he gets stronger”:

It sounds like a good resume (laughs.) I wish I had that resume. No, he’s a good defender. I don’t know where he gets that from. He goes out there and makes things happen. Since he was five, six years old. I watched him play in the infield and he was trying to be like Edgar Renteria — every time he’d dive and throw the ball from his knees. And I was like, where does this kid get this from? Obviously, he’d been watching baseball. He’s like, “I’m like Edgar Renteria.” I always thought he was a really good shortstop coming up through that age, and obviously he’s pretty comfortable playing outfield. He can do whatever he wants; he’s a great athlete.

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On his three-promotion year in 1996, when Jones started in High-A Durham and ascended to the majors after hitting a combined .339 with 34 homers and 30 stolen bases in 116 games for three minor league affiliates:

I’m not gonna lie, I was mad. We had a really good team and we were trying to win a championship (at High-A Durham). We had Wes Helms, we had Ron Wright, we had a great team at Durham. It was crazy. We were trying to win a championship in A-ball, and all of a sudden you’re in the World Series in the same year. I was like, “oh my God, what’s going on?” But I really didn’t think much about anything, to be honest. I was just having fun, just going out there and playing baseball, something that I love to do. That’s the thing that I’m trying to pass to these young kids — hey, go out there and just have fun and enjoy the game, because the more you put your mind on it, the harder it’ll get.

On MLB’s labor impasse:

I’m kind of disappointed in both sides. I know the players are going to have the stuff they want and the owners are going to have their own way to go with it, but I’m still disappointed. Can we just get it going and get it together and stop playing cat and mouse or whatever? The owners are making a lot of money and the players are making a lot of money now, too.

On the Braves not being able to enjoy their World Series win as much with the sport shut down since Dec. 2:

Trust me, The Battery (retail and entertainment complex adjacent to Truist Park) is going to be fine that first day they raise the banner. I played in the old stadium and I played in (Turner Field). I played World Series in both of those stadiums. I went to this past World Series, and that stadium (Truist Park) was something different. I still get chills when I talk about it now. Those fans, they came out and were really, really pumped up for the team. That built the team up, and I’m so happy that we ended up winning it.

On whether he’s surprised that Freeman wasn’t re-signed before getting to free agency, unlike Jones’ former teammate Chipper Jones, who spent his entire 19-year career with the Braves and always had a new contract before reaching free agency:

Not really, to be honest with you. Because what happened with Chipper, he kept renewing his contracts, but he was giving (them) that hometown discount. I mean, he was not getting that full money. If Chipper wanted to go somewhere else, he would have got a lot more money than he was making in Atlanta. So it’s all up to, what do you want to do? I mean, if you want to make your career in one place or if you want to move on. Some of us didn’t get offers. I didn’t get an offer. They offered (Tom) Glavine maybe … but I think they didn’t even offer (John Smoltz) what he wanted. They didn’t offer Smoltzy nothing, so I think Smoltzy was still salty about that a little bit. And I’m sure those guys didn’t want to leave. We had been here for so long, and been so successful in one place.

It’s hard to move on and go to a different place, but it happens. You could see it happen to Brian McCann. He ended up coming back (to the Braves at the end of his career), but he had to step away because they weren’t going to offer him that money (McCann got a deal with the New York Yankees when he left Atlanta). They didn’t offer him even close to what he wanted. It’s a business. Now I see it more as a front-office guy, but still being a baseball player. I see where they’re coming from, but it’s a business. I hope it works out that (Freeman) ends up coming back, but if he doesn’t, we have to move on and make things happen.

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On the current Braves team and its outlook:

They’re in win mode, and they’ve got the team, they’ve got the players. Like (manager Brian) Snitker said, we lost Acuña and other people stepped up and did the job, and we won the World Series. So if it happens — and I hope it doesn’t happen — if Freddie ends up going somewhere else, somebody else has to step up and take the slack. People get injuries, people get traded, people leave through free agency, and a team just has to have other people step up and do the job.

I’m excited to see Acuña back on the field. I was watching him and talked to him before the lockout when he was getting ready to go back home (to Venezuela). He looks ready. He looks excited. I’ve seen some film of him swinging the bat, and I’m looking forward to seeing him back on the field and seeing what he can do again for the team.

On the lockout possibly giving Acuña and Charlie Morton more time to fully recover before the season starts (Acuña is coming back from July knee surgery, Morton from surgery to repair a broken leg sustained in the World Series):

Yeah, I think this might work (for the Braves) a little bit. We don’t want it (to happen) like that, but if everything gets backed up a little bit, we might get Acuña back when the season starts, if they push it back a month or whatever. Charlie Morton is a big key. I mean, the guy is a winner. He knows how to win, how to be that dirty dog to go out there and get the job done. I haven’t heard anything about (Mike) Soroka but I’m looking forward to getting him back. (Soroka is coming back from a twice-torn right Achilles that required three surgeries since he last pitched in a major league game.)

On the team’s preference of keeping Acuña in right field if possible:

Talking with him from the beginning, he just doesn’t want to play center field. I know the front office knows that; I know the coaching staff knows that. But he plays it because that’s the position (where he can best) help the team win. That’s why he’s done it, he wants to win. But if you leave it to him, he’d say, “Put me in right field and let me just play.” And I think if we can do that this upcoming season, we’re going to see … the best of Acuña to come.

Center field is a lot of running and it can put wear and tear on your body. He will be much better in right field and we will get more out of him in right field than when he’s playing in center field.

On his pride in fellow Curaçaoan Ozzie Albies:

He’s a big key to that team being where it is. He goes out there and posts every day, just like Freddie. He goes out there and plays every day. That’s leadership. Leadership is not all talking and being on the top step yelling and trying to pump up the team. Leadership is going out there and getting the job done and doing it consistently.

On whether rookie center fielder Cristian Pache, who struggled early, lost his job in 2021 and was sent to Triple A for most of the season, can hit enough to go with his strong defense:

I think he will. I mean, it’s all about getting the opportunity. He got into a spot and they had to make a move (last season) because his defense was not as sharp as (usual). If his defense was solid and he was saving runs for the team, I think they would have stuck with him. He had some nagging injuries like hamstring and groin. It’s tough. If you play center field you can’t be having those things. Not that I never played with a sore hamstring here and there — I played hurt more than I played 100 percent. You’ve got to know how to do these things.

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Sometimes I want to have a chance to talk to these kids a little bit. But sometimes I don’t want to be in their way too much because I don’t want to hurt their feelings with what I have to say, or I just don’t want to mess with their heads. I’ve been in that situation. In ’98 I had a bad start in the season and people were like, when are we going to send this guy to the minor leagues? I went out there and I played defense, I caught everything that was in my (area). I was not going to let anybody take my position away from me. I ended up hitting 34 home runs. If I had a good start I probably would have hit 40.

When (Pache) went to the minor leagues he played good. But it was tough to bring him back up because everything was rolling, everybody was doing the right job. So it was tough to bring him back up and put him into the lineup. I think going into the new season, he’s going to have a chance to fight for the job again. We’ll see where he ends up.

On the three July outfield pickups who became free agents — NLCS MVP Eddie Rosario, World Series MVP Jorge Soler and Joc Pederson, who are all unsigned:

I like Soler a lot; he brings tremendous power from the right side. I had seen him before, but he impressed me a lot seeing him live  — how big he is, how patient he is, and he made contact. I would like to have him. But if we don’t get Freddie back, we need some left-handed hitters in the lineup, so Rosario will be a key part of that, to be back. I don’t know about Joc Pederson. But it’ll be interesting to see what we’re going to do. We need to get this lockout over first, and move on to getting free agents signed and getting down to spring training. 

On his 10-year span, when he totaled 57.4 bWAR while winning 10 Gold Gloves and playing virtually every day, and his prospects of making the Hall of Fame with up to five years remaining on the writers’ ballot:

It’s a lot of stuff that you say, if I didn’t do that, would I have played longer? But I don’t think about those things. I think (that) in that moment I wanted to go out and help my team win. After that if injuries come, who cares? All I want to do is help my team win. My main thing is, all my teammates that I played with, they knew how hard I went out there and played behind them.

If I make it to the Hall of Fame, it will be an honor. I will be speechless. It’ll probably be a two-minute speech (laughs). But if it didn’t happen, there’s a lot of guys that played this game that put up great numbers and didn’t make it. So it’ll be hard, but we just move on and keep living life.

On Fred McGriff possibly making it into the HOF via the Era Committee vote this December, after not getting even 40 percent of votes in 10 years on the writers’ ballot despite a .284 career average with 493 homers, 1,550 RBIs and six top-10 MVP finishes:

I pray to God he (makes it). I love Fred McGriff and I know what kind of player he was, what he brought to the table. Nobody can tell me what Fred McGriff didn’t do in his career that wasn’t better than some guys in the Hall of Fame now. Even considering the guys that just went in the last 10 years at the first-base position. Nothing against (Jeff) Bagwell; Bagwell was a great hitter. But I don’t think he was a better first baseman than Fred McGriff.

On winning the 2005 Hank Aaron award and finishing second in the MVP race:

I’m proud that I won the Hank Aaron award that year. It was one of those awards that had just started a few years before that. Flying with (Aaron) on the same plane to go get the award, it was awesome to talk to him. All we talked about was life, we didn’t even talk about baseball. We talked about life. When he passed, I was very emotional.

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I’ll never forget (that trip). I’ll take that over the MVP award, to be honest with you.

(Photo: Rob Tringali / Getty Images)