Andruw Jones arrested on battery charges

Veteran outfielder Andruw Jones was arrested early Tuesday morning in Duluth, Georgia, on charges of battery, according to Gwinnett County Sheriff records. Jones was booked at 3:48am ET Christmas morning and released around 11:00am on $2,400 cash bond.

The arrest occurred when the police responded to a call about a domestic dispute between Jones and his wife -- Nicole Derick -- at around 1:30am, according to several other reports.

The 35-year-old Jones -- who recently signed a one-year, $3.5 million contract with the Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Japanese Pacific League -- is a 17-year big-league veteran most widely known for his stints with the Atlanta Braves and the New York Yankees.

Jones first broke into the majors in 1996 at the age of 19 -- and while he did not have much success in his 31-game stint with the club -- he did become the youngest player to ever hit a home run in the World Series, mashing two long balls in his first two at-bats.

The righty slugger became the Braves' starting center fielder the following season and his career took off from there. Jones hit .263/.342/.497 with 368 home runs in his 12-year stint with Atlanta, winning ten consecutive Gold Gloves in center field from 1998-2007.

He struggled immensely once he left the Braves, but settled into a bench role with the Yankees the last two seasons, hitting .220/.322/.447 with 27 home runs in 171 games split between the corner outfield spots and DH.

There is no indication of whether the charges made against Jones will affect his status as to playing in Japan this coming season.