The Dodgers reached settlement with reliever Joe Jacques on a minor league contract, reviews Bob Nightengale of USA Right now (X hyperlink). The Gaeta Sports activities Administration consumer receives an invitation to huge league Spring Coaching.
Jacques elected minor league free company a number of weeks in the past. He’d been squeezed off the Diamondbacks’ roster midseason. Arizona designated him for task once they acquired A.J. Puk every week earlier than the commerce deadline. Jacques cleared waivers and spent the remainder of the season on an outright task to Triple-A Reno.
A 6’4″ lefty, Jacques has pitched within the majors in every of the previous two seasons. He made 23 appearances for the Purple Sox in 2023, delivering 26 2/3 innings of 5.06 ERA ball. Jacques solely pitched twice within the majors this 12 months — as soon as apiece for the Sox and D-Backs. He gave up three runs in as many innings. The Manhattan Faculty product pitched in 40 video games within the minors, all however one in every of which got here on the Triple-A degree. He allowed 5.48 earned runs per 9 throughout 42 2/3 innings. Jacques struck out 20.7% of batters confronted whereas issuing walks at a barely elevated 10.6% clip.
Like quite a lot of lefty relievers, Jacques depends on a sinker-slider/sweeper mixture. He doesn’t throw exhausting, sitting within the 90-91 MPH vary together with his fastball. That limits the swing-and-miss upside, however he has achieved a wonderful job holding the ball on the bottom. Jacques induced grounders at a 60.4% clip en path to a 2.54 ERA in Triple-A in 2023. He has a equally spectacular 61.9% ground-ball proportion in his MLB profession. He’ll vie for a situational function in Spring Coaching. Anthony Banda, Zach Logue and teen Justin Wrobleski are the one left-handers on L.A.’s 40-man roster.
