Joe Jímenez has always had a great arm, but after a 2018 season that seemed to make him the Tigers’ closer for the foreseeable future, his command and control – never great to begin with – took a big hit, and he bottomed out with a 6.35 ERA in 68 innings between 2020 and 2021, allowing 40 unintentional walks and 13 homers. He bounced back in 2022, walking just 13 men in 56 innings, going from throwing 62% of his pitches for strikes in 2020-21 to throwing 69% of them for strikes last year.
He gets a lot of movement in both planes on his mid-90s four-seamer, although he leaves it in the middle of the zone more often than he should, and primarily pairs it with a downward-breaking slider in the mid-80s. Neither is truly a plus pitch, although he gets enough chases on the slider that it’s close.
He’s a rental, as he’s a free agent after the season, and the 2022 season is a clear outlier in his career so far, so there’s quite a bit of risk here for Atlanta.
In exchange, the Tigers get Justyn-Henry Malloy, a left field/third base prospect who makes very hard, loud contact and has shown good feel for the strike zone, with 97 walks and 138 K in 591 PA across three levels in 2022 – his first full pro season. The hard contact hasn’t translated into big power numbers yet, but it certainly seems to be in there and he might just be a small swing adjustment away from 25-plus homers a year.
He’s played third but moved to left as the season went along, exclusively playing the outfield in the Arizona Fall League, and may still end up at first base. Left-hander Jake Higginbotham is 93-95 with a fringy slider that doesn’t get lefties out as much as you’d expect, but he throws strikes and could be a middle guy fairly soon, having pitched adequately in double A last year.
Malloy is the real return here, with positional and power risk, but I like him as the get for one year of Jímenez given the latter’s inconsistent history.