There are a number of causes of the Atlanta Braves’ downward spiral this season, but one of the first dominoes to fall (other than some lingering injuries) was when Joe Jimenez needed knee surgery that threatened his availability for the 2025 season. Atlanta knew that Jimenez had a knee issue, but they didn’t realize how bad it was until too late and they failed to compensate for his absence last offseason basically at all.

We can debate whether or not the Braves should have been more aggressive in shoring up their relief corps during the offseason (they should have), but the next thing to think about with Jimenez is when the Braves can expect him to return. Again, there was some hope that he could come back late this season, but those hopes are dashed now.

According to Braves manager Brian Snitker, Jimenez experienced some soreness in his surgically repaired knee as it “just kind of wasn’t holding up”. As a result, the Braves have shut down Jimenez which all but assures that he won’t be playing this season.

Joe Jimenez has setback during rehab from knee surgery and just got shut down

The odds that Jimenez was going to play this season were already pretty small. Ignoring for the moment that his return timeline always included the possibility that he wouldn’t be ready in time, there was little reason to rush Jimenez back. With the Braves out of the playoff hunt, there is a strong argument to just let all of Atlanta’s injured pitchers rest up and try to start fresh next season.

However, that Jimenez experienced an actual setback in his rehab is not ideal. The injury Jimenez had surgery for was a chronic, long-term “wear and tear” sort of knee injury versus something like a torn ligament or meniscus. One shouldn’t write him off because of this, but that Jimenez is still having issues with his knee is going to raise some concerns going into the offseason.

One hopes that the Braves don’t make the same mistake this coming offseason that they did last offseason. This is a team that needs to overhaul their bullpen and at this point, they probably shouldn’t count on Jimenez being the important cog he once was.