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"I'm not thinking about that," said Jones, who will make an interesting visit to the free-agent market at the end of this season. "I'm just thinking about getting our team going and into the [National League] Wild Card."
Andruw Jones' farewell month?
Andruw Jones said there have been no contract negotiations between the Braves and him or agent Scott Boras, but he's not dwelling on the possibility of this being his final month with Atlanta.
"I ain't even thinking about it," he said before Sunday's loss. "I'm thinking about playing better baseball, getting our team going."
In the final season of his contract, Jones has hit a career-low .222 with 24 home runs, 84 RBIs and a .316 on-base percentage. He'll be eligible for free agency, and the Braves haven't said if re-signing him will be a priority.
"We didn't talk yet," Jones said. "There's a month left, too much to worry about without [thinking of] the contract. Hopefully when everything's said and done, I'll get a contract so I can be here."
Some fans will blame manager Bobby Cox for the Braves' recent performance, but Jones said blame should be with the players.
"Fans don't know," he said. "It's not Bobby. He makes out the lineup. It's the players who've got to go out and get the job done."
"Andruw Jones took a discount to stay in Atlanta last time," Boras said, referring to the six-year, $75 million contract Jones negotiated with the Braves before the 2002 season, when he and his father worked out the deal with general manager John Schuerholz without Boras at the table.
Jones has assured Boras he will let the agent handle negotiations this time, and Boras told him about 15 teams will have interest. "He probably took 30 or 40 million less to stay, because he likes Atlanta and enjoys playing in Atlanta," Boras said. "But as he said earlier in the year, he wants his fair market value [this time]."
"It's a very different marketplace than when he signed his previous contract," Boras said. "Revenues in baseball have doubled. We all know the Atlanta Braves are making millions of dollars in profits."
