Jared Jones strikes out 7 in final start of rookie season

NEW YORK — Jared Jones was saying plenty into his glove while walking back to the visitors’ dugout at Yankee Stadium on Friday night. He wanted to try to finish the fifth inning after the Yankees put two runners in scoring position with nobody out, and he got off to a good start by getting Gleyber Torres to shatter his bat for the first out of the inning.

That power slider that splintered lumber ended up being Jones’ final pitch of his rookie 2024 campaign. Those inherited runners would come home on a Jazz Chisholm Jr. single, meaning Jones’ season ERA finished at 4.14 rather than sub-4.00, but those would be the only runs the Yankees would get on the night. Behind the power of Bryan Reynolds — who homered from both sides of the plate — and Nick Gonzales, the Pirates went on to beat the Yankees, 4-2.

And when asked about Jones being hot coming off the mound, manager Derek Shelton immediately cracked a smile.

“I love his intensity,” said Shelton. “I think that’s one of the main things that you love about this kid. He’s a competitor. He goes after people. I mean, I think if it were [up to] him, he would pitch until the game’s over every single time. So you would rather have that. And to have that at [23], that ability, that killer instinct, yeah, I love that.”

While Jones’ final start was cut short, it was arguably the best his stuff has looked since he hit the injured list with a right lat strain on July 3. Jones topped 100 mph four times, maxing out at 101.1 mph. He struck out seven. He pitched with that intensity that has endeared him to his teammates.

“He just attacks every time, whether or not he’s got his A stuff or not,” Reynolds said. “He doesn’t shy away. That’s big. That’s big going forward for us next year, too.”

Jones is a big part of this rotation moving forward, establishing himself quickly as a big leaguer from that first time he toed the rubber at loanDepot park in Miami on March 30. His 132 strikeouts are the fourth most of any National League rookie pitcher this year, and had it not been for his trip to the injured list, he could have led that group.

Many would view this as a great rookie season, but Jones is a pretty blunt and sometimes harsh critic.

“Just being myself, I would say it was terrible,” Jones said. “A lot of other people would say I had a pretty good one. After the injury, I kind of let some things go a little bit. Didn’t have some of my best starts. Everything just kind of went up on me. That type of stuff happens during a long season, which is OK. There is a lot of room for improvement.”

There were some bumps in the road in the second half of the season, when Jones pitched into the sixth inning in just two of his final seven starts while allowing at least five runs in two of those outings. That inflated his season stats, but it didn’t take away what he accomplished those first three months.

“I think he’s been good [since returning from the injured list],” Shelton said. “I think before the IL, he was outstanding. I mean, we were seeing stuff that we had not seen out of a rookie, except for maybe the guy starting tomorrow [Paul Skenes] in terms of the Pirates.”

It wasn’t all bad down the stretch, either. After leaning almost exclusively on his fastball and slider in the first half, Jones mixed in more curveballs in the second, and it shows promise for being a genuine third pitch.

“It’s going to be good for next year,” Jones said. “I felt like against some teams, I went fastball-slider and just sprinkled in a really bad curveball and really bad changeup. Getting some fine details down on those other two pitches, it will be better for next year.”

Jones wants to have that third pitch for next year. He also wants to get stronger so he can hold up better for a full season. They are the type of lessons one learns after a first full rookie season.

So if this season was “terrible,” what would a good 2025 campaign look like?

“Doing what [Skenes] did this year,” Jones said. “Obviously, I don’t want to just copy a person, but I had a couple blowup starts, so I want to eliminate those and just not let those happen. I feel like as I get a [quality start] at the end of the day, I did my job.”