Inaugural Hot Stove Banquet to Feature Hall of Famer Andruw Jones

Andruw Jones, fresh off election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, will be the guest of honor at the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp’s inaugural Hot Stove Banquet, a fundraising and fan-engagement evening set for 6:30 p.m. on Friday, February 6 inside the Right Field Hall at VyStar Ballpark. The event pairs star power with community impact, offering a VIP Meet & Greet, photo line, plated dinner, program emceed by Frank Frangie, and a public Q&A session, while proceeds from a silent auction will benefit Walk Off Charities.

Tickets are priced at $150 per person or $1,000 for a table of eight, with VIP packages including a pre-dinner Meet & Greet and one personalized autograph per VIP attendee. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the dinner includes a full-plated meal with one drink ticket for beer or wine; a vegetarian option will be available. Fans must bring their own item for signatures under the VIP autograph policy.

Jones’ Hall of Fame election underscores a career of two-way excellence. He played in Major League Baseball from 1996 to 2012 with the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees, then extended his professional career in Japan with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2013 and 2014. Jones finished with 434 career home runs and 1,289 RBIs, earned five All-Star selections and won ten Gold Glove awards, all with Atlanta. The Braves retired his number 25 and inducted him into the team’s Hall of Fame, a marker of the enduring bond between Jones and Atlanta fans.

For the Jumbo Shrimp, the banquet is also a strategic play. Jacksonville is the Triple-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins and enters the offseason as the 2025 International League and Triple-A National Champions, status that raises the franchise’s profile and sponsorship value. Hosting a Hall of Famer and a World Series champion and recording artist like Brett Myers signals a push to turn offseason functions into revenue generators and fan-retention tools. The combination of ticketed experiences and a charity auction creates multiple revenue streams while keeping tickets accessible to a broad cross-section of supporters.

Culturally, the event leverages nostalgia and star recognition to reconnect fans with baseball’s legacy at the Triple-A level. Jones’ career, which included both elite defensive recognition and power numbers, gives younger fans a tactile link to a recent era of the game, while his international stops highlight baseball’s global pathways. For local baseball businesses and sponsors, the banquet is an opportunity to align with a high-profile moment in the community calendar and to capitalize on the Jumbo Shrimp’s championship momentum.

For fans, the banquet offers a rare chance to meet a newly minted Hall of Famer and to support Walk Off Charities. For the Jumbo Shrimp, the event is a statement that Triple-A franchises can monetize star-driven programming in the offseason while reinforcing ties to a growing fan base ahead of the 2026 season.