For a man that carried a 3.04 ERA, a 1.15 WHIP, a 2.2 BB/9 and an 11.7 K/9, Joe Jimenez didn’t exactly endear himself to Braves fans and I can’t understand why. He also didn’t endear himself to his manager as Michael Tonkin, Kirby Yates, A.J. Minter, and Collin McHugh all pitched more innings than Jimenez, despite Jimenez being much more effective (and healthy). McHugh and Tonkin are both understandable as their roles were different, but both Yates and Minter struggled with command quite often in 2023, while Jimenez was around the zone regularly.
Jimenez has been in the bigs 7 years now and has really found his groove these past 2. However, I feel like he was misused by Snitker as the majority of his innings came in low leverage situations. Granted, the Braves were blowing people out most of the time so maybe there were just more low-leverage innings to cover. Still, I’d like to see Jimenez stick in the 8th inning role for the next 3 years.
AA didn’t flirt with Jimenez this offseason, but got straight to the point and signed the reliever to a 3 year/$26MM deal. Along with Pierce Johnson, who also received an extension, the Braves look to have a strong 7/8/9 combo heading into the 2024 season. As it currently stands, the Braves bullpen has A.J. Minter, Tyler Matzek, Dylan Lee, Joe Jimenez, Pierce Johnson, and Raisel Iglesias. I’d love for AA to get one more stud to lock it down air tight.
Hader would do nicely. Or a Smoltzie clone.
I dunno that it’s too hard to figure out why Jimenez wasn’t a favorite of fans, or why he didn’t start getting into high-leverage situations till later in the year: he had a pretty rough start to the season.
In April and May, he made 20 appearances, with a 4.42 ERA, 4.62 FIP, and .836 OPS against.
From June through September, he made 39 appearances, with a 2.37 ERA, 3.10 FIP, and .635 OPS against.
By the end of the year, he had emerged as a reliable arm, but not exactly O’Ventbrel. This contract feels a little similar to the Will Smith deal – Jimenez is not a bullpen ace, but he’s a solid B+ option. Bullpen construction is enormously important and AA has generally done a very good job at assembling pens from a combination of random castoffs, midtier free agents, and farmhands, so this kind of midtier free agent deal seems reasonable to me.
Ron Washington to the Angels. They might actually be good next year.
Good for Wash. Hope he loses to us in the world series.
Good for Wash. Win them all, Ron.
I wouldn’t wish the post-Ohtani Angels gig on my worst enemy (dysfunctional organization top-to-bottom) but best of luck to Wash.
Amen.
I hope Wash wasn’t the “glue” keeping this team together….. Looks like we lose EY Sr. too. I hope Weiss sticks around. Wonder what the coaching staff will look like next year.
I find it interesting he chooses Ryan Goins as Infield Coach considering Goins was playing in Gwinnett a couple of years ago.
Clearly, Wash has added a tremendous amount to this team, and I’m thrilled he’ll get another opportunity to manage. But I don’t buy that there’s one single person who’s the soul of the team. I think the team lost a lot when Freddie left, but I don’t think it was irreplaceable.
It’ll be important to find someone who’s able to motivate the team; Snit’s an excellent even keeler, in the mold of Bobby Cox, but I think Wash is a lot better at delivering the inspirational Braveheart speech to rally the troops. His gifts as a teacher are probably harder to replace, but I think this clubhouse needs someone who’s able to light a fire under their ass. Terry Pendleton could do that, too.
Agreed, Alex.