The final stat line of the year for Jared Jones is unfortunate for him.
Jones didn’t have a clean day, but he entered the fifth inning with four shutout frames.
It was his final start of his rookie MLB season. It was his first start in Yankee Stadium.
Jones allowed a single and a double to lead off the fifth inning, putting runners at second and third with no outs. He got Gleyber Torres to ground out to short for the first out. Juan Soto was intentionally walked. That’s when Pirates manager Derek Shelton came out to pull Jones from the game.
Rightfully so, Jones was visibly frustrated. He didn’t seem like he wanted to exit, and was screaming into his glove on the way back to the dugout.
Why should he have left the game?
His pitch count was at 85.
The Pirates win total was at 74.
The next start for Jones will be sometime in late February, and it will last 2-3 innings.
This was a rare chance for him to pitch against the Yankees, in New York. He was laboring, but he was keeping runs off the board. He wasn’t given an opportunity to get out of his final jam, going up against two young sluggers in the middle of the order.
What happens if Jones remains in the game?
Worst case, Jones gives up a single to Jazz Chisholm Jr. on the second pitch of the next at-bat. Then, you’d be justified in pulling him, rather than giving him another chance.
The Pirates ended up choosing a scenario worse than this worst case. They called on reliever Joey Wentz to give up the single to Chisholm on the second pitch of the next at-bat. Either way, Jones gets the runs. He just didn’t get the chance to keep them off the board after they got on the board. And Wentz got two chances to try and stop the Yankees with runners on and one out.
This is a microcosm of why Shelton isn’t a good manager. He doesn’t react to the individual situation with a proper response for the larger situation.
I’ve seen Shelton leave a struggling pitcher in games in the fifth inning when the Pirates had a chance to contend. It’s usually a veteran pitcher in those situations. This game was largely meaningless, outside of the chance to see Jones pitch one final time this season. For Jones, it was a way to end his rookie year with a statement.
This is also a microcosm of why the Pirates aren’t good with development. They handle too many situations with kid gloves, and try to control the situation too much with young players.
Shelton was conservative with his removal of Jones. He didn’t allow Jones the chance to succeed, out of too much fear that he would fail. He tried to turn to the bullpen to lock down the shutout for Jones’ final start, rather than allowing Jones the chance to do the job himself.
That’s the final moment of the season for Jones. Not that he pitched 4.1 shutout innings and left runners on base. It’s that his manager didn’t trust him to get out of his jam, with 85 pitches thrown in the final start of a 74 win season.
I don’t think Jones would have been crushed if his season ended by giving up a multi-RBI single to Chisholm. I do think it’s a massive opportunity wasted, especially if he failed.
The rookie season for Jones came down to one final matchup: Jared Jones vs Jazz Chisholm with the bases loaded and one out. He wasn’t given the chance to play that matchup. It was probably one of the biggest at-bats of the season for Jones, at a point in the year where learning from experience is the only point in playing. Even if he does fail in that situation and gives up a hit, the experience would have been invaluable.
Shelton even talked up the value of experience after the game when discussing how Jones has grown as a Major Leaguer this year.
“You can’t do that, except by doing it,” Shelton said on Jones learning to pitch every five days in the Majors for a full season.
The same sentiment extends to individual situations.
Next year, Jones will have a similar situation to the Chisholm scenario in one of his starts. He won’t be able to draw from the experience of the matchup with Chisholm, or the outcome.
If the outcome was positive, it would have done wonders for Jones heading into the offseason, while adding confidence for the future with his manager in tough situations. If the outcome was negative, it would have provided Jones with an invaluable learning opportunity.
There was no reason for Shelton to remove Jones in that situation, unless he’s playing to win game number 75 out of a maximum 77 wins this year.
If Shelton is playing to win, and his displayed preference is to trust Joey Wentz over Jared Jones in a big situation in the fifth inning, then what message does that send to Jones next year if Shelton is still the manager? How much will Jones press with his pitches to avoid an early removal?
The final stat line for Jones was 4.1 innings, 5 hits, 2 runs, 2 earned runs, 2 walks, and 7 strikeouts.
That was unfortunate, because he left with 4.1 scoreless innings, and wasn’t given a chance to keep the final two hits, nor the intentional walk, from scoring.
At least he’ll be rested by February. Perhaps at some point next year he can get this type of in-game experience.
Three Pirates Observations
The Pirates beat the Yankees 4-2 on Friday. Below are three things which stood out from the win.
- Bryan Reynolds hit two homers on Friday, launching the tying run shot in the sixth inning, and the go-ahead two-run homer in the eighth inning. That gives him 24 on the season, with a .794 OPS. He’s seen a drop in his power over the last two months of the season, and it was good to see him finishing the season on a positive note at the start of the final weekend of the series.
- Nick Gonzales hit his sixth homer of the year in the sixth inning, which was followed by the first Reynolds homer to help bail out Jones. Gonzales is having a good finish to his season, batting .298 with a .359 OBP in the month of September. He hasn’t been hitting for a lot of power, but this homer was the second extra base hit in the last two games. Those were the first extra base hits for Gonzales since a three game stretch September 17-19. He’s been consistently hitting, with hits in 16 of his 22 starts this month. The Pirates had him batting leadoff and playing shortstop on Friday.
- Jazz Chisholm Jr. has been an amazing trade deadline addition for the Yankees. He has ten homers and 18 stolen bases since the deal, giving him a 2.0 WAR in his time with New York. They have him under team control for two more seasons beyond this one. He was the guy who I thought the Pirates should have added this year at the deadline. Still, I’m not sure he would have had the same impact. It’s a bit different going to this Pirates offense, versus going to a Yankees lineup with Aaron Judge and Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo. Chisholm would have needed to be this type of player in Pittsburgh, in order for them to contend. He doesn’t need to be this type of player for the Yankees to contend, but he’s capable of being this type of impact player. I think he needed a lower pressure team situation, rather than being the franchise leader.
Bradenton Marauders 2024 Season Recap
The Bradenton Marauders didn’t have a good season, and they didn’t have a top ten prospect on their roster, but they featured plenty of prospect depth. On Friday, I recapped the 2024 Marauders season, looking at the hitter and pitcher of the year, the top ten prospects, notable performances, and the early 2025 outlook. The thing about prospect depth is if you have enough of it, and a good enough development system, you can produce a few extra Major Leaguers in the future. Read about the prospect depth in Bradenton in my 2024 Marauders season recap.
