Late last night, the news got out that Reynaldo López would be heading back to the IL with shoulder inflammation and that JR RItchie would be coming up as a result. Ritchie will reportedly be making the start on Wednesday, so none of these moves were particularly surprising when the Braves announced it.
However, Atlanta ticked on an encouraging rehab assignment for a relieve that we haven’t seen for a very long time.
Well, would you look at that! Joe Jiménez is beginning a rehab assignment. I’d imagine that a lot of folks probably expected to see Robert Suarez’s name here considering that he’s been the one that we’ve seen most recently on a big league mound for the Braves.
With that being said, Jiménez had been throwing live BP recently and and there had been indications that he was doing that just to finally get back on the mound before the 2027 season. That honestly might still be the case as far as this rehab assignment goes, as it would be asking a ton of Jiménez to return at this juncture of the season with a Postseason run on the horizon.
Still, it’s good to see that Jiménez appears poised to make a return to the Braves — whether it’s this season or next. It’s been a long, long road to recovery for Jiménez and hopefully there are no more setbacks for the veteran reliever.
