Joe Jacques

JOE JACQUES, LEFT HANDED PITCHER
Born: March 11, 1995
Height: 6′ 4″
Weight: 210
Bats: Left
Throws: Left
Drafted: 33rd Round, 984th Overall, 2018
How Acquired: Draft
College: Manhattan College
Agent: N/A

WTM’s PLAYER PROFILE
The Pirates drafted Jacques as a fifth year senior from Manhattan College, where he was a walk-on and earned a starting job as a freshman.  After that season he dropped down to throwing sidearm and got better results, with a 3.13 ERA on a team that had a 5.57 mark.  He returned to a higher arm slot for his junior year and regressed, then hurt his back and redshirted a year.  As a fifth-year senior in 2018, and back to throwing sidearm, he had a 2.61 ERA in 38 innings, with a 38:12 K:BB ratio.  He cut down on his walks in each of his last two years, while improving his strikeout rate to 9.0 per nine innings in 2018.  He did miss some time with a lat injury.  Jacques throws two- and four-seam fastballs that sit in the upper-80s.  His out pitch is a sweeping slider, and he also throws a change and is adding a cutter.

2018
R+:  0-2-1, 6.33 ERA, 1.78 WHIP, 21.1 IP, 8.0 BB/9, 8.0 K/9
A-:  0-0-0, 9.00 ERA, 2.00 WHIP, 3.0 IP, 3.0 BB/9, 3.0 K/9

Except for one late-season game with Morgantown, Jacques pitched out of the Bristol bullpen.  He had a large platoon split, which makes sense for a sidearm lefty:  he allowed a .625 OPS to left-handed hitters and .819 to right-handed hitters.  Jacques had a rough time early, with a 17.47 ERA in his first five outings.  In his last dozen outings with Bristol, his ERA was 2.30.  Walks were a problem throughout.

2019
A:  0-1-0, 2.96 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 24.1 IP, 5.5 BB/9, 7.4 K/9
A+:  4-3-1, 2.41 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 41.0 IP, 3.5 BB/9, 8.6 K/9
AA:  0-0-0, 0.00 ERA, 3.00 WHIP, 1.0 IP, 18.0 BB/9, 0.0 K/9

Jacques started the season at Greensboro, but moved up to Bradenton at the end of May.  He pitched mostly in multi-inning outings, going as long as four a couple times.  He also made one appearance in Altoona at the end of the year.  Jacques was generally effective and got more so after the early season, mainly because he cut down on the walks.  He was equally effective overall against hitters from both sides, the one difference being that he had more trouble with walks against left-handed hitters but they had little success driving the ball against him.  He allowed a line of 185/349/215 to left-handed hitters and 208/285/289 to right-handed hitters.  He didn’t strike out a lot of hitters, resulting in xFIPs that were much higher than his ERA at both Greensboro (4.59) and Bradenton (3.50).  It’s possible, though, that for a pitcher with a low sidearm delivery, K rate might not have quite the same predictive value that it normally does.

2020
DNP

2021
AAA:  3-1-1, 4.31 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, 48.0 IP, 3.8 BB/9, 9.9 K/9

The Pirates moved Jacques up to Indianapolis and he spent the season in the bullpen there.  He was very effective most of the year, but had a terrible month of July and also had trouble in six September outings.  His opponents’ OPS was almost exactly league average.  Jacques had a big platoon split, allowing an OPS of .823 to right-handed batters and only .622 to left-handed batters.

2022
A:  0-0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0.33 WHIP, 3.0 IP, 0.0 BB/9, 12.0 K/9
AA:  1-0-0, 0.00 ERA, 1.0 WHIP, 3.0 IP, 6.0 BB/9, 12.0 K/9
AAA:  4-1-2, 3.62 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 37.1 IP, 2.9 BB/9, 6.5 K/9

Jacques was hurt at the start of the season, but worked his way back to Indianapolis in mid-June.  He improved over the previous season, apart from a much lower K rate.  He was very steady, with a monthly ERA ranging from 2.63 to 4.32.  His platoon split was huge, as right-handed hitters put up an .845 OPS against him while left-handed hitters were close to automatic outs, going 4-for-47 with a .257 OPS.

Jacques is interesting due to his motion, but the three-batter minimum isn’t going to help his chances in the majors.  It’s certainly possible to work around it, but not for a manager tied to a robotic approach of always using certain pitchers in certain, preordained innings.  It’d be interesting to see him get selected in the Rule 5 draft by a team intrigued by his numbers against left-handed hitters.

CONTRACT INFORMATION
2023: Minor league contract
PLAYER INFORMATION
Signing Bonus:
MiLB Debut: 2018
MLB Debut:
MiLB FA Eligible: 2024
MLB FA Eligible:
Rule 5 Eligible: 2021
Added to 40-Man:
Options Remaining: 3
MLB Service Time: 0.000
TRANSACTIONS
June 6, 2018: Drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 33rd round, 984th overall pick; signed on June 13.