The Dodgers have signed veteran right-hander Nate Jones to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Oklahoma City, per their Triple-A communications director Alex Freedman (Twitter link). Jones, a client of Sterling Sports Management, was designated for assignment and released by the Braves earlier in the week after a brief stint with Atlanta.
The 35-year-old Jones parlayed an excellent Spring Training effort into an Opening Day spot in the Atlanta ’pen but struggled mightily out of the gates with his new club. In 10 1/3 innings, he surrendered six runs (four earned) on the strength of eight hits and 10 walks.
Jones was once an excellent setup man with the White Sox but has struggled to stay on the field and put up lackluster results when healthy in recent seasons. In parts of eight seasons with the ChiSox, he pitched to a 3.12 ERA over the life of 291 1/3 innings. Whether he can ever reclaim that form remains to be seen, but Jones came out of the gates in 2021 with a still-very-healthy 95.8 mph average velocity on his heater. He’ll give the Dodgers some experienced depth in Oklahoma City and could eventually work his way onto the big league roster, particularly given the number of injuries in the L.A. bullpen. The Dodgers are currently without David Price, Corey Knebel, Brusdar Graterol and Scott Alexander.
I would offer my deepest condolences but I hate LA so I won’t.
The haters are just Los AnJealous
Four of the walks were intentional. Does WAR factor that in? I’ll have to check the formulas for various sabermetrics and algorithms to see if they do.
IBBs count.
Hitting a guy in the wrist or helmet doesn’t.
So IBB’s count towards WAR but hbp’s don’t??? That’s pretty silly
Imagine having your boss force you to do something 40% of the time it occurred, then they fire you in large part because of command
interesting signing by the dodgers
Nasty Nate about to raise some eyebrows in LA
He is instantly gonna become an elite set up man with 17.0 k/9 because the Dodgers are magical.
@mrtwotone. That wouldn’t surprise me. The bad thing is there are more suspect relief pitchers still on the Braves with less upside.
What’s their record in the last month? 7-15? Magic.
3 World Series appearances in 4 seasons magic
So, another losing record, then?
remind me how many they won?
One more than your team.
7-15 stretch less than 5 weeks into the season(thats 60% of the year), yet they’re still the 5th best WP in the NL currently? Seems to qualify as magic
@secret Satan
You have an incredible username lol. The Dodgers have a habit of turning garbage players into studs. They are a world-class organization that does everything well. I’m not working Dodgers fan at all, but, up can definitely recognize a well run operation.
Mrtwotone, You know of what you speak. Right on. The Dodgers have a gang of reclamation projects on their roster. Kenley Jansen started off as a no-name catcher in their farm system and he’s on his way to Cooperstown some day. Chris Taylor was a nobody backup in Seattle and the Dodgers turned him into a solid hitting, good base running, solid fielding, and versatile SOB.
Justin Turner was a platooning no name with the Mets and now look at him. His resume is that of a brilliant third baseman, raking hitter, big time clubhouse guy, he’s Mr. Dodger on and off the diamond in LA, and etc.
And don’t get me started on my favorite Dodger Max Muncy. The A’s thought he couldn’t hit, they thought he wasn’t worth platooning at any infield position, and then they released him. Now look at him. An OBP stud, has provided the blue and their fans with so much excitement with home runs and such, he’s a darn good 1B, and I could go on.
He was bad for the Bravos. Nothing interesting about the signing. He walks the ballpark.
Filed for future ref bobarino
Feels like the Dodgers were just waiting for any serviceable reliever to hit the wire and hope they can fix them. The guys in the pen now are clearly over matched. Why not try to fix a fairly decent guy with an actual track record
Wouldn’t surprise me if all the sudden turned back the clock some and was effective with the dodgers. Braves bullpen as a whole has been a mess, some of that is execution and bad luck but I don’t think our pitching coach is worth a damn
I know it’s still early, but man, I thought the Braves would be better. They’ve been on my shortlist since the 2020 WS ended as WS contenders this year along with my boys in blue, the Padres, White Sox, and Astros.
The Braves could still win the NL East because no one in that league is impenetrable this year. The Mets always disappoint you somehow, Philly has a good team this year but they aren’t all that, Miami is rebuilding, and the Nats are a shell of what they were in 2019.
Nate Jones should be good as a Dodger. Intentional walks are awful and shouldn’t count towards FIP or xFIP or any other stat as it’s strictly a managerial decision.
He doesn’t have a ton of tread on his tires, so who knows? Maybe he has something left. When he was actually healthy and able to throw, he was almost always great for us on the South Side. It’s a shame that his career has gone downhill since leaving though.