PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – We could sum up Jared Jones reactions to being back in a Pirates uniform like this-returning ‘exciting’, missing ‘not fun’. The rookie right-hander completed three games of rehab and will start Tuesday night against the Cubs.
“It'll be nice to have him back tomorrow,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton. “It's something that was unfortunate that he had the injury and we had to build him back up, but he was having a really good start to his rookie year, so it's nice to get him back. It's nice to have him healthy. I think it's the most important thing.
Jones hasn’t pitched in the majors since July 3 when he suffered a lat injury during that start against St. Louis. The right-hander was 5-6 in 16 starts with a 3.56 ERA with 98 strikeouts and 27 walks in 91 innings with a 1.11 WHIP.
He started the season on fire after winning a job in Spring Training. The 23-year-old struck out 10 in his MLB debut at Miami. Then he struck out 29 in his next four outings. He had another 10-strikeout game against Colorado, allowed no runs against the Dodgers on June 4. Even gutted out his last start allowing only a run and striking out five Cardinals over 5 innings.
What Jones brought to this team out of the gate was a little swagger. For someone who had never pitched a game in the pitchers, he was confident with the top few buttons of his uniform undone and the chest hair hanging out.
“I would say the biggest thing about Jared Jones is he's not scared,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton. “He's gonna come at you. I know I use the word attack a lot. There is never a time that this kid is not in attack mode. He's going right after you all the time.
So, it's nice to have him back.
Jones last start he said was a boost to the ego striking out 10 Columbus Clippers with one walk and one hit allowed over five innings on August 20. He said he had a slow start to his rehab because the focus was just building back the foundation. It’s not known what his pitch or innings-limit might be, Shelton said they were going to be mindful. He also said, much like rookie Paul Skenes, he wants him to finish the season.
“Very much like we've talked about with Paul, there's no way you can do it without actually doing it, as simple as that sounds,” Shelton said. “Him being healthy, him finishing is something that's very important for us and it's very important for him moving forward.”
“We want him to take starts until the end of the season and help us win games,” said Pirates GM Ben Cherington. “He’ll be back, active and part of that and it wouldn’t be any different than how we were thinking about it before he went on the IL.”
“Obviously we’ll be thoughtful about the volume coming off the IL and make sure he’s recovering and all that stuff and keep an eye on him, but we want him to be an active member of our rotation and help us win games.”