In 1995 Chipper took over for Terry Pendleton at third base. Pendleton was the anchor of the Braves lineup during their run through the early part of the 90’s, now the torch was being passed to Chipper. Needless to say, Chipper took the torch and ran with it. All he did in his rookie year was finish 2nd to Hideo Nomo in Rookie of the Year voting, bat third for the eventual World Series champs while finishing in the top 20 in MVP voting and then have OBP of .453 in the postseason. Not a bad debut. The incredible part? 1995 would easily be, statistically speaking, the worse season of Chipper’s career. Things would only go up.
Chipper set about to be the best third basemen, and best switch hitter in the game. If those were his goals, you’d be hard pressed to prove he didn’t accomplish them. From 1996 thru 2001 Chipper finished in the top 11 in MVP voting six times, and was an All-Star on five occasions. Remarkably, the one year he wasn’t an All-Star was 1999. That of course was the year he further followed Pendleton’s footsteps as he claimed the NL MVP award, thanks in large part to the fact he drove in 16 runs, had 7 home runs, and had a ridiculous 1.510 OPS in just 12 games against the Mets.
In 2002, Chipper’s run of All-Star games to an end as the Braves asked him to move to the outfield. It was a move Chipper wasn’t thrilled with, but his respect for Bobby Cox and desire to help the team win prompted Jones to go along with the move to enable to club to add Vinny Castilla. Over the next two seasons, Chipper, along with Andruw Jones and Gary Sheffield formed one of the greatest offensive outfields the game of baseball has ever seen. However, left field wasn’t Chipper’s forte, and there were concerns that it was going to hurt Chipper physically. In 2003, Chipper missed more than 5 games for the first time in his career. It didn’t seem like much, but it seemed to be the start of trend. In 2003 Chipper arguably had his worst season since his rookie year. He still finished 25th in the voting, but it was the first time since his rookie season that he wasn’t 11th or higher.
In 2004 Chipper injured his hamstring while playing in the outfield. Upon his return from the disabled list it was decided that a return to 3rd base was in the cards. Jones missed 25 games in 2004, and even upon his return wasn’t quite right. His offense suffered again, and for the first time since 1997 Chipper had an OBP under .400. He also failed to drive in 100 runs for the first time since driving in just 86 in the strike shortened 1995 season.
People wondered if Chipper was beginning to hit the downslide of his career. Those rumblings only got louder in 2005 when Chipper missed over 50 games due to injury. However, while he missed a lot of time due to injury, his numbers were up. His numbers improved again in 2006, even though he again missed over 50 games. However, he was productive enough in the time he played to once again crack the top 20 in MVP voting as he drove in 86 runs in just 110 games played.
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