[1] Through the end of the 2020 season, Jon Jay has the third highest modern-day career fielding percentage for a center fielder at .996, behind only Darin Erstad and Shane Victorino.

Between 2011 and 2013, Jay established an errorless record streak for National League (NL) center fielders at 245 games.

[4] His father, Justo Jay, spent 19 years in prison for his role in the cocaine trafficking organization of Sal Magluta and Willy Falcon.

[6] Showing exceptional baseball skill in high school, Jay played on the state championship-winning team during his senior year in 2003.

[9][1] After signing with St. Louis, Jay made his professional debut that year with the Swing of the Quad Cities and spent the whole season there, slashing .342/.416/.462, with three HR and 45 RBI in 60 games.

Jay spent 2009 with Memphis, where he compiled a .281 batting average, with ten HR, 54 RBI, and 20 stolen bases in 136 games.

[10] Jay made his Major League debut on April 26, 2010 with the St. Louis Cardinals,[1] after having begun his second consecutive season with the Memphis Redbirds.

During his rookie season, he played in 105 games and made 323 plate appearances (PA), batting .300, with 19 doubles, and a .359 on-base percentage (OBP).

In Game 6 of the 2011 World Series, Jay had a key hit in the 10th inning and later scored the tying run on a line drive into centerfield by Lance Berkman.

On May 15, 2012, Jay was moved to the 15-day disabled list due to lingering shoulder soreness after running into the outfield wall the month before, but he returned shortly thereafter.

Between August 24, 2011, and July 30, 2013, Jay established a new NL all-time errorless streak record for center fielders at 245 games against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

[12] Curt Flood, a former Cardinal, owned the previous center field record of 226 games spanning from Sep 3, 1965 to Jun 2, 1967.

[13] With increased playing time in 2013, Jay established career-highs in PA (628), doubles (27), runs (75), BB (52), and RBI (67).

As a free agent, Jay signed a one-year, $8 million contract with the Chicago Cubs on November 29, 2016.

[24] On June 6, 2018, the Royals traded Jay to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for Elvis Luciano and Gabe Speier.

[39] In late May 2021, Jay was named to the roster of the United States national baseball team for the Americas Qualifying Event.

[50] On January 28, 2011, Jay hosted a charity bowling event at Lucky Strikes Lanes in Miami Beach, Florida.

[51] Called Jon Jay's Celebrity Bowling Challenge, an estimated $25,000 were accumulated throughout the almost four-hour event and went to Chapman Partnership, involved in homeless centers throughout the Miami-area.

Among the twenty Major League Baseball attendees were Yonder Alonso, J. P. Arencibia, Gio González, Drew Storen, Chris Marrero, Tyler Greene, Allen Craig, Lance Lynn, John Mayberry, Gaby Sánchez, Manny Machado, and Mike Lowell.

The proceeds benefited Great Circle, a nonprofit organization that provides behavioral health services autism, educational challenges, emotional health, in-home crisis intervention, foster care and adoption, adventure therapy and psychological trauma recovery.

[55] In December 2015, Jay accompanied joined former Cardinals player and manager Joe Torre and then-Cardinals catcher Brayan Peña on an expedition to Cuba.

It was MLB's first visit there since 1999, and one anticipated as an important step to help normalize relations with the United States that had begun to ease earlier in the year.