The recovery of Atlanta Braves setup man Joe Jiménez hit a bit of a snag. Manager Brian Snitker said the right-hander has been shut down from throwing recently due to discomfort in his knee.
Snitker said he had been progressing well down in North Port, Fla., before the setback occurred. The goal is to let the knee “catch up” and give it a chance to rest a bit.
There was no mention of how it can impact his timeline. He has been back to throwing for some time before this update game.
Jiménez is recovering from a knee surgery he underwent toward the beginning of the offseason. His recovery time was set at between eight to 12 months, meaning there is a chance he can return to the mound sometime this season.
Snitker said last month that it was likely that Jiménez was pitching for a time with the injury at the end of the season. A standout performance was when he pitched both games of the doubleheader against the Mets at the end of last season.
It turned out to be a more substantial procedure than expected as well, once they had the chance to go in and take a look.
“He’s a tough dude, man,” Snitker said, “because, like I said, when they found out how extensive the surgery was, I was like, man, that’s something else that you were handling a load that you did.”
It would be huge for him to get back before the end of the season couple of reasons. The first obvious one is that he is healthy and pitching again for the team. He’s making an impact and showing what he can do for next season. The other is that he gets a normal offseason this year. Last year, he got surgery and went through the early stages of rehab. This time, he can get back to business as usual.
This benefit has been emphasized by Snitker for Chris Sale and other pitchers. It applies all the same to Jiménez.
Last season, he was a force at the back end of the bullpen alongside closer Raisel Iglesias. In 69 games last season, Jiménez had a 2.62 ERA and a 0.99 WHIP across 68 2/3 innings pitched.
We’re at a point in the season where we’re trying to see what could work for next season. The bullpen has struggled most of this year, including the cogs from last season, such as Iglesias, so getting the opportunity to see if Jiménez can jump back in this season would help a lot.
