Joe Jimenez (RP, DET) - Week 11 Waiver Wire Pickups

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ANALYSIS: Normally when you start a month by allowing five ER and four walks in two IP, your spot in the bullpen may be up for grabs. Luckily, when you are Joe Jimenez and pitch for the Detroit Tigers who rank 27th in the MLB with a 5.28 bullpen ERA, you have a little bit of leeway. The 24-year old native of San Juan has had a rough output from the surface in 2019, producing 5.33 ERA and 1.41 WHIP in 25.1 IP. However, his horrid start to June has over inflated his stat line on the year, and he came into this month fresh off of a 3.00 ERA and 1.00 WHIP in 12.0 May innings.

Jimenez has a few key departments that seem to be causing his struggles. While his strikeout rate has increased to 32.5%, his walk rate also increased to 12.3%. Also, while he is forcing more soft contact at 21.7%, his hard contact rate has ballooned to 43.3% which appears able to sustain his high BABIP allowed (.315) off of his GB/FB ratio of 0.65. There is however, a silver lining for the fly ball-heavy pitcher, which is his fantastic 19.2% IFFB rate and ability to consistently produce whiffs with his 96 MPH fastball and 90 MPH changeup. Joe Jimenez has expressed his frustrations with his recent work, and the young arm has already displayed some streakiness in his MLB career. With the valleys will also come the peaks, and this is a guy who has also displayed dominance over prolonged stretches (that's how he got the 2018 All-Star nod). With as many injuries as the Tigers pitching staff is dealing with, Jimenez's eleven holds should inspire further optimism.