NORTH PORT, Fla. – In the final week of the season, Braves right-hander Joe Jiménez helped push his team to the postseason. He pitched on Sept. 28, then in both games of the Sept. 30 doubleheader against the Mets – the second of which was a victory that sent Atlanta to the postseason for a seventh consecutive season. Two days later, Jiménez threw again in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series against the Padres.
To the public, he was still a dominant setup man.
Away from baseball, Jiménez struggled with cartilage damage in his knee – something only those around the team knew.
“Oh yeah. We knew he was hurting,” Dylan Lee, another reliever, said. “There were times where he was trying to get off the bus or get off the plane, even after a game, and you could tell he was hurting.”
Still, Jiménez continued pitching.
“I obviously, throughout my career, have felt things that I’ve kept pushing through, and really didn’t even think (this) was something that was going to be that bad,” Jiménez said. “But at the time, I felt something, I just came in every day, treated it. Pitching, I didn’t feel anything. It was just something that it bothered me sometimes, so I kept pitching.”
Jiménez began experiencing the pain in his left knee in July. At one point in August, he had the knee checked out. He received independent opinions from doctors.
For Jiménez, the knee wasn’t bad enough to stop pitching.
‘When we finish the season, we’d take another look at it and see if we have to do anything about it,” he said at the time. “But as of now, I’m pitching and it doesn’t bother me pitching. I’ll just continue and at the end of the year, we’ll see what we’re going to do.’”
That’s when the shock came.
In October, doctors re-evaluated Jiménez and found increased cartilage damage in his knee. He needed surgery. The Braves called it a procedure “to repair cartilage damage.” Jiménez believed it to be a torn meniscus cartilage transplant.
“Well, really surprised, because like I said, I was pitching fine,” Jiménez said. “I think nobody thought that it was going to be something like that and I was going to miss so much time, but when the doctor said that, we just obviously listened to him. We talked to a few other doctors, just to make sure we were all on the same page. Yeah, I mean, it was kind of a surprise.”
From the beginning of July – the month he began experiencing discomfort – through the end of the regular season, Jiménez posted a 2.23 ERA over 32 1/3 innings, with 43 strikeouts and nine walks. He pitched a scoreless inning against San Diego in the postseason. On the final day of the regular season, his four-seam fastball hit 96 mph.
All of this with an injured knee.
Even if it didn’t bother him much while pitching, this is still super impressive.
“When I saw him after his surgery, I saw him at the ballpark and I was like, ‘Good Lord, I had no idea that’s what you were going through,’” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “It just shows you how tough he is. And we know how well he did and how well we performed, and I hated that he had to miss time again. It was the back two years ago. Real stuff, too – that’s the thing. But you know what, he’ll come back and be all the better for it.”
“He wants to win,” Lee said. “I’ve always known that about him. He takes it personally when he doesn’t do well on the field – even if it is in his control or out of his control. I got a lot of respect for what he did last year and knowing that he was banged up and still going out there and competing every day.”
Jiménez said doctors told him that if he didn’t have surgery, he might not return the same and the knee might keep bothering him. So, if nothing else, at least the surgery occurred in the offseason, which gave Jiménez a chance of pitching this year.
The Braves have said they expect Jiménez to miss eight to 12 months. If he’s out for 12, he won’t pitch this year. If he’s out for eight or nine, he’ll be able to return around the All-Star break or shortly thereafter.
So, the Braves could “add” an elite reliever by getting back a healthy Jiménez. But they also might be without him for the season.
The silver lining for Jiménez: His knee is repaired and he’s on the road to recovery. He’ll be fully healthy, without anything nagging him, when he returns.
“I’m just focusing on my rehab,” Jiménez said. “Obviously it’s a long process, but I come here every day to work and try to do everything that I can just to make it right now. Obviously, hopefully I pitch this year. We don’t know yet. It’s something that, through the time, we have to look (at). As of now, I’m focusing on my rehab every day and see how it goes.”
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
