PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Talk is good from the Pirates medical staff about right-handed pitcher Jared Jones as he continues to rehab from Tommy John surgery. As for where he pitches here, Pirates GM Ben Cherington considers Jones a starter. However.
“We certainly believe he's a starting pitcher,” Cherington said Thursday with Pittsburgh reporters. “We'll make the determinations about exactly who is in what role when he's ready to come back on the team. Certainly, very possible he's starting games but we want to take it an outing at a time with all these guys."
So he’s a starter long-term, but the Pirates general manager left some wiggle room as to how he might be used this year. Part of this are conversations he would need to have with whichever starter would be removed from the rotation, likely Carmen Mlodzinski.
There is also the question of pitch and/or innings counts for Jones.
Pirates Director of Sports Medicine Todd Tomczyk said there is no cookie-cutter number for Jones in terms of pitches or innings limits when he does return. Tomczyk said that program is personalized and depends on a number of factors-past workload, how he recovers, efficiency, it’s not just one metric.
“Every journey is unique,” Tomczyk said.
Tomczyk said in his start Sunday at AA Altoona Jones will increase in intensity and volume, but noted you have to consider entire volume of throwing including bullpen sessions and flat-ground throwing in-between starts.
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“The arm doesn’t know what the arm is,” Tomczyk said getting philosophical. “The arm just knows that it’s throwing at a high intensity. Just from our perspective, we don’t get so enamored from a performance team’s perspective, we don’t get so enamored with in game pitches, it’s more of how they come out of the total volume.”
"He's come along really well,” Cherington said. “We're going to continue to take it an outing at a time with him. When he's back, we believe he's just going to make our group of 13 stronger. Exactly what that means in terms of roles, we're not there yet.”
“We're going to keep taking it a day at a time. But one way or another we believe he makes the group stronger and we'll see where we are when we get to that point.”
“He pitches Sunday. Haven't made any decisions past that.”
Pirates GM discusses Jones’ rehab and role when he returns
Pirates GM discusses Jones’ rehab and role when he returns
