Dodgers must wait and see with Jones

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- It's the oddest sight in camp. It's the loudest whisper in camp.

People are staring, people are talking, everybody is wondering, there's no way around it.

Literally, no way around it.

Andruw Jones looks heavy.

The newest Dodgers center fielder looks like the newest Dodgers wrestler.

He stalks up to home plate in his Dodgers whites and you're like, this is him?

This is the sleek center fielder who has won 10 consecutive Gold Gloves?

This is the sturdy star who has never missed more than nine games in a season?

This is the Dodgers' athletic new stud?

The Dodgers won't say if they are worried, but they have to be worried.

Jones smiles and says he will be fine, but the numbers don't lie.

At his peak, when he hit 40-plus home runs with 120-plus runs batted in, he weighed 235 pounds.

He is now about 10 pounds heavier.

At his peak, he was 28 years old.

He will spend most of this season at age 31.

"You gain weight when you get older, it happens to everyone, it's just a fact," Jones said.

That fact could be wearing on his spring batting average, which is .118 after seven games.

He has one single, one double, one RBI and a whole bunch of at-bats that looked like his three against the New York Mets on Tuesday.

In the first inning against Johan Santana, he struck out flailing.

In the third inning against Santana, he bounced weakly to shortstop.

In the sixth inning against Scott Schoeneweis, he bounced out weakly again.

He hasn't had any eventful occurrences in center field but, then again, he hasn't played that many innings yet.

Jones, who has the Chinese characters for "Bull" tattooed on the back of his neck, repeats that he will be fine.

"I know how I have to feel, I know how strong my legs have to be, I'm working hard to get there," he said.

The Dodgers have no choice but to trust him.

"Given he's new here, given his track record, we have to give him the benefit of the doubt," Manager Joe Torre said. "But that doesn't mean we don't have people paying attention to what he's doing."

Jones said his weight issues dated to last season, a disappointing free-agent audition during which he said he was too light.

"Preparing for that year, my wife and I had a weight-loss contest," he said. "She won, I lost."

Did he ever, dropping 15 pounds, reporting to his Atlanta Braves job at 220 pounds.