Jacque Jones

[William Malone]

Jacque Dewayne Jones was born on April 25, 1975 in San Diego, California.

The Minnesota Twins selected him in round two of the 1996 MLB Draft out of the University of Southern California. That summer, he earned a bronze medal with Team USA at the Olympics. Jones made his Major League debut for the Twins in 1999, batting .289 with nine home runs and 44 RBI across 95 games.

He made the Opening Day roster as the starting left fielder in 2000. Jones had four multi-hit games in his first five appearances of the season, including two multi-RBI games. He was hitting .292/.319/.490 at the All-Star break, but cooled off a bit in the second half. Jones got off to a similar hot start in 2001, collecting ten hits in the Twins first six games. He finished the year slashing .276/.335/.417 with 14 home runs and 49 RBI over 149 games.

Jones had career highs in home runs (27), RBI (85), on-base percentage (.341), slugging percentage (.511) and OPS (.852) in 2002. Minnesota reached the postseason for the first time since 1991 that fall. He was 7-for-40 (.175) in the playoffs. The Twins reached the ALCS, but fell to the eventual World Series champion Anaheim Angels. Jones hit a career high .304 in 2003, moving to right field mid-season after Minnesota acquired Shannon Stewart in a trade. He was 2-for-16 (.125) in the ALDS that fall.

His regular season performance was a bit down in 2004, but Jones finally had a productive postseason. He was 6-for-20 (.300) with two home runs in the ALDS. This included an emotional homer in game one, which came a day after his father's funeral. Jones had taken a red-eye flight from California to New York so he could get to the game on time.

Minnesota's three year AL Central streak came to an end in 2005. Jones hit .249 with 23 home runs and 73 RBI that summer. It was his final season with the Twins, and he signed a three year deal in free agency with the Chicago Cubs that winter.

He had a strong first season with the Cubs, but demanded a trade in the off-season after the club fired manager Dusty Baker. Chicago refused his request, and Jones often clashed with new manager Lou Piniella throughout the 2007 campaign. He was finally traded to the Detroit Tigers on November 12, 2007. Detroit released him after just 24 games, with more clubhouse conflicts surrounding Jones being reported. He signed a minor league deal with the Florida Marlins, and played 18 big league games for them later in the year.

Jones played for the Newark Bears of the independent Atlantic League in 2009, and spent 2010 back in the Twins farm system. He hit .280 in 96 games for the Rochester Red Wings that year, but never got a big league call-up.

The San Diego Padres hired him as a minor league hitting coach in 2012. Jones worked at various levels of their system before getting hired as the Washington Nationals big league hitting coach in 2016. He spent two years with the Nationals, but was fired on the eve of the 2017 playoffs after the league began investigating Jones over a revenge porn incident. Jones was eventually found liable in the case, and ordered to pay the victim $67.000.

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