Joe Jacques: Andrew Friedman’s Next Reliever Project

Posted By on November 18, 2024

Standing tall at 6’4″, Joe Jacques is a wiry left-hander whose deceptive sidearm delivery has made him a specialist against left-handed hitters. A graduate of Manhattan College, Jacques has pitched in the majors for two consecutive seasons, debuting with the Boston Red Sox in June 2023 after being plucked from Pittsburgh in the 2022 Rule 5 Draft. While his MLB stints have been limited—23 appearances for Boston in 2023 with a 5.06 ERA across 26 2/3 innings, and just two outings in 2024 for the Red Sox and Diamondbacks—his ability to generate ground balls remains his hallmark.

Jacques’ arsenal revolves around a sinker-slider combo. His fastball, averaging 90–91 mph, boasts heavy sink, making it an excellent tool for inducing weak contact. Complementing it is a sweeping slider with substantial horizontal movement, a weapon particularly lethal against lefties thanks to his low, slinging release point. Though his changeup remains a work in progress, Jacques has shown promise in limiting damage, as evidenced by a stellar 60.4% ground-ball rate in Triple-A during 2023, where he posted a 2.54 ERA in 42 2/3 innings.

Mechanically, Jacques starts from the first base side of the rubber and delivers from a sidearm slot, an unorthodox motion that left-handers find exceptionally difficult to pick up. His frame—long limbs with a lean build—adds to the deception. While his lack of velocity limits his swing-and-miss potential, he compensates with precision and ground-ball mastery.

Despite struggles against right-handed hitters and a slightly elevated walk rate (10.6% in Triple-A), Jacques’ ability to neutralize lefties and keep the ball in the park gives him value as a situational reliever. With a 61.9% career ground-ball rate in the majors and an impressive 52.7% sinker usage, he’s proven adept at managing contact.

After being designated for assignment in April 2024, Jacques enters Spring Training poised to compete for a bullpen role, joining a slim group of lefties on the Dodgers’ 40-man roster, including Anthony Banda and Alex Vesia. While his ceiling remains that of an up-and-down left-handed specialist, his unique skill set and ground-ball proficiency ensure he’ll remain a valuable option for bullpen depth. Finally, I think that Jacques is exactly the type of pitcher that Andrew Friedman takes from the scrap heap and turns him into a highly effective reliever. This hapens every offseason when fans love to say that Andrew Friedman shops at Dollar General or loves to get players off the scrap heap… and they usually are wrong.

Is Ohtani a Two-Way Player?

This issue was brought up yesterday by Doug in Sacremento whe wrote this:

Hello Mark. I don’t fully understand the rule but I’m pretty sure they won’t be able to carry the extra player at the start of the season. The reason being: since Ohtani didn’t pitch at all this year, he loses his qualification as a two way player for next season and will need to re-establish it by pitching a certain number of innings this season. You might want to look into it and will probably understand it better than me once you do but a very reliable source has explained that to me.

–Doug

Well, Doug is right! Shohei Ohtani’s recent shoulder surgery and his ongoing recovery from elbow surgery have raised questions about his ability to fulfill the criteria for MLB’s two-way player designation in the upcoming 2025 season.

MLB’s Two-Way Player Criteria: To be designated as a two-way player, a player must achieve the following within either the current or the immediately preceding season:

  • Pitching: At least 20 Major League innings pitched.
  • Hitting: At least 20 Major League games started as a position player or designated hitter, with a minimum of three plate appearances in each game.

This designation allows the player to pitch without counting toward the team’s pitcher limit, which is capped at 13 pitchers on the active roster (14 from September 1 through the end of the regular season).

Ohtani’s Status: In the 2024 season, Ohtani served exclusively as a designated hitter due to his recovery from elbow surgery and did not pitch.

Consequently, he did not meet the pitching requirement for two-way player status in 2024.

Given that Ohtani did not pitch in 2024, he would need to meet both criteria during the 2025 season to regain two-way player status. This means he must pitch at least 20 innings and start at least 20 games as a position player or designated hitter with the required plate appearances in 2025. Until he achieves these milestones, he cannot be designated as a two-way player, and any pitching appearances he makes would count toward the Dodgers’ pitcher limit.

While Ohtani has expressed intentions to return to pitching, his ability to be designated as a two-way player in 2025 will depend on his health and performance during the season. Until he fulfills the necessary criteria, the Dodgers will need to manage their roster accordingly, as any pitching appearances by Ohtani would count toward their pitcher limit.

This article has 34 Comments

  1. Maybe I am just STOOPID (likely!) but I don’t understand why there is a limit on how many position players or pitchers a team can have? Why does MLB care? How could it advantage a team if it decided to have say 9 position players only and the rest be pitchers who might be able to assist if/when someone gets hurt?

    1. It’s part of an overall plan to try to reestablish the import of starting pitchers.

      There’s an article or interview somewhere with Theo Epstein where he is pretty explicit about his goal to make starting pitchers “heroes again.”

      Obviously the recent rash of injuries is a speed-bump to that destination. And a significant one. But that is MLB’s goal, with Epstein at the helm.

  2. The Unicorn will reach the hitting requirements before the calendar flips to May. Not so the pitching part. They’ll just shuttle a guy to AAA for every Ohtani start until he meets the requirements. Then we keep 14 pitchers unless Ohtani gets hurt. Just a little bump in the road.
    Book em

  3. soto signs today ! 10 years for 900billion! ohthani traded to the pirates for Brian Anderson. it could happen!! loll

  5. Jacques seems like he could be a good one, following in the footsteps of Banda, Brasier, Almonte, Bickford, Phillips…. who am I forgetting?
    While the Dodgers have a great record for helping bargain-bin pitchers quickly improve, I hope it doesn’t dissuade them from shopping uptown for proven relief studs like Devin Williams or Tanner Scott.
    That said, bringing back Treinen should be the top bullpen priority.

  6. Rule 5 deadline day:

    “One of the under-the-radar busiest transactional days of the baseball year, this is the final day for teams to set their 40-man rosters in advance of the Rule 5 Draft (which takes place on December 11). Plenty of clubs will be facing some tricky decisions on which eligible prospects will be protected from the R5 with roster spots, and creating that roster space will result in some DFAs, releases, or perhaps trades of players already taking up room on the 40-man.

    Teams have until 5pm CT today to finalize their rosters, so expect a pretty big flurry of moves to come later this afternoon. Eligible players who aren’t added to the 40-man could find themselves changing organizations on December 11, and there’s risk for teams in potentially losing an interesting prospect for virtually nothing”.

  7. Qualifying offer decisions due today:

    ‘The 13 players who received qualifying offers from their teams have until 3pm CT to officially decide whether or not to accept or reject the one-year, $21.05MM contract. Nick Martinez has already agreed to accept his QO and remain with the Reds, but it appears that he’ll be the only member of the 13-player class to take the deal. As per recent reports, Sean Manaea, Luis Severino, and Nick Pivetta are all likely to reject the qualifying offers in search of longer-term contracts in free agency. While there was perhaps a bit of question as to whether any of those pitchers could take the one-year payday, there is zero doubt that the other nine free agents issued QOs (Willy Adames, Pete Alonso, Alex Bregman, Corbin Burnes, Teoscar Hernandez, Max Fried, Anthony Santander, Juan Soto, and Christian Walker) will reject the offer and test the open market;.

    1. Twelve of the 13 qualified free agents have declined the QO, tweets Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. The exception was Nick Martinez, who accepted the $21.05MM offer from the Reds over the weekend.

  8. Teo Hernandez rejected the Dodgers’ one-year, $21.05 million qualifying offer Tuesday, Francys Romero of BeisbolFR.com reports.

    ‘Hernandez has made his desire to stay with the Dodgers no secret and the team would also like to bring him back, but the veteran outfielder has his sights set on a multi-year contract this offseason. The 32-year-old slashed .272/.339/.501 with 33 home runs during the regular season for the Dodgers and clubbed three more long balls while driving in 12 in 16 postseason contests’.

  9. I don’t understand why Buehler seems to be such a low priority. He is only 30 and appears to be healthy once again. More to the point, on a team that has more often underachieved in the post season, he has always delivered. As he did again this year. If the Dodgers are building a team for the post season, which I’m sure they are, how are they not locking him up?

      1. I hope that’s the plan and he isn’t a casualty of some analytics-driven decision. Winners win. Also, what is the status of Dustin May? I don’t see him included in the list of injured starters that could be back next year.

  10. MLB says this this is the Dodgers’ Toughest Rule 5 Decision:

    Dodgers: Jerming Rosario, RHP
    Signed for the 10th-highest ($650,000) of any pitcher in the 2018 international class, the Dominican-born Rosario works with a 92-97 mph fastball and a low-80s slider. He posted a 4.47 ERA, .199 average-against and 120 strikeouts in 108 2/3 innings while rising from High-A to Triple-A, then fanned 24 in 16 Fall League frames.

    1. Looks like the only player the Dodgers added and protected from the upcoming December 11th Rule 5 Draft. The 40 man roster now stands at 38.

      1. No surprise to me. Dreyer is the real deal.

        The Dodgers could lose Austin Gauthier and Ben Harris, but that is the price you pay for having an elite farm system.

        1. Can the team still trade guys like Gauthier, Harris, Lipcius, etc. before the actual draft day in December? I’m assuming the answer is yes.

          1. I think I answered this elsewhere, but you can trade them but they have almost no value.

            They would still be exposed in the Rule 5 draft and they could be acquired for a near-zero cost in the draft.

  13. read earlier the phillies are expected to make a big push for Crochet. this would make them “favorites “ to over take the dodgers as world series contenders. this would also make their starting rotation best in baseball. Well we’ve heard it all before! (1). multiple teams covet the big left hander. (2). never count the dodger front office out on anyone they really want. (3) even if the phillies do get Crochet, AF will probably counter by signing Burnes.( i didn’t believe he would until i heard MLB network saying the dodgers were favorites) . (4). when next season starts, i believe the dodgers starting lineup will be much better than the phillies! (5). The dodgers are the DODGERS ! the phillies are still the phillies. so they’re always looking up at LA! …. lots of Buehler to the Braves rumors. if there is any truth to these reports, that makes me think the dodgers are really looking “BIG “ as far as starting goes! would hate to see walker leave, but Gonsolin says he’s ready for a big season! if he’s healthy, why not? i guess we must wait and see if the dodgers will actually make burnes a priority. Glasnow,Yamamoto, Burnes,Gonsolin,Ohtani,Clayton, miller, knack, sheehan? that’s pretty impressive. oh i forgot Sasaki possibly joining the party! … so resign Teo, sign Adames , resign Kike, dump Taylor and lets roll

    3. If the Dodgers land Sasaki, plus the addition of Ohtani on the mound makes them as good as anyone.

      Phillies are a tough team and Crochet would certainly put them in the conversation for being one of the top teams in baseball, but don’t sleep on a Dodger rotation that consisting of Ohtani, Glasnow, Yamamoto, Sasaki (potentially), Gonsolin…

  14. I get the feeling that the Dodgers offseason is going to be fairly boring.
    AF is really good at working around the periphery. He picked up 3 good minor leaguers already. I don’t anticipate any big free agent signings, but a big trade is possible and a couple smaller ones.
    Burnes, Fried, Snell etc. will be on the open market a long time if they insist on too many years. There are red flags concerning pitchers everywhere, and GM’s will be hesitant to make a long term mistake. That’s why I was a little surprised by the Yamamoto signing.
    Anyway the off season is less boring when you have LA DodgerTalk!
    Book em

    1. One way to look at it is if you sign a guy like Burnes for 6-7 years and he has TJ and misses a year, you still only give up a fairly small part of the time you have him.

      If you sign a guy like Snell for 3-4 years and he has TJ, you lose a greater portion of the time you thought you’d have him.

      That’s one way to look at it, but I doubt it’s Andrew Friedman’s way of looking at it. 🙂

      1. I think there is a 2% chance of signing Snell and a 1% chance of signing Burnes.

        In others words, “the chances are slim and none!”

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