The Dodgers reached settlement with reliever Joe Jacques on a minor league contract, experiences Bob Nightengale of USA Immediately (X hyperlink). The Gaeta Sports activities Administration consumer receives an invitation to massive league Spring Coaching.
Jacques elected minor league free company a couple of weeks in the past. He’d been squeezed off the Diamondbacks’ roster midseason. Arizona designated him for project 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 project 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 Pink 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 School product pitched in 40 video games within the minors, all however one in every of which got here on the Triple-A stage. 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 numerous lefty relievers, Jacques depends on a sinker-slider/sweeper mixture. He doesn’t throw laborious, sitting within the 90-91 MPH vary along with his fastball. That limits the swing-and-miss upside, however he has accomplished a superb job maintaining 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 share in his MLB profession. He’ll vie for a situational position in Spring Coaching. Anthony Banda, Alex Vesia, Zach Logue and teen Justin Wrobleski are the one left-handers on L.A.’s 40-man roster.