If there’s one thing we learned from Joe Jiménez’s 2024 season, it’s that this guy is built differently. While most of us were watching the Atlanta Braves grind their way into the postseason, Jiménez was out there throwing gas and shutting down hitters—all while battling a knee injury no one even knew about.
Yeah, you heard that right. Behind the scenes, Jiménez was dealing with cartilage damage in his left knee, which only his teammates and the Braves’ staff knew about.
And yet, when the lights were bright, and the stakes were high, he kept taking the mound like nothing was wrong.
A Braves Playoff Push on One Leg
Let’s set the stage here. After six straight division titles before last season, the Braves found themselves in the Wild Card mix this time. Down the stretch, Jiménez was one of their go-to guys out of the bullpen.
He pitched in the Braves’ 2-1 win over Kansas City on September 28, then took the ball in both games of their September 30 doubleheader against the Mets—one of which officially sent Atlanta to the playoffs. A couple of days later, he was back on the mound against the Padres in the postseason. Business as usual, right?
Except it wasn’t business as usual. Jiménez had been feeling discomfort in his knee since July. He got it checked out in August, but the plan was simple—keep pitching, finish the season, and reevaluate later.
From July onward, he posted a 2.23 ERA over 32 1/3 innings with 43 strikeouts. That’s not just serviceable—that’s elite-level production, and he was doing it on a bad wheel.
The Injury Nobody Knew About
“There were times where he was trying to get off the bus or get off the plane, even after a game, and you could tell he was hurting,” fellow reliever Dylan Lee said.
But Jiménez? He just kept going. To him, the pain wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. He had pitched through discomfort before, and as long as he could still throw, that’s exactly what he was going to do. Even Braves manager Brian Snitker didn’t fully realize how serious it was until after the season ended.
It wasn’t until October that the real shock came. When doctors took another look at his knee, they found significantly worse cartilage damage than expected.
The Surgery That Changed Everything
The Braves announced he would need surgery, and Jiménez later described it as something resembling a meniscus cartilage transplant. Talk about a gut punch.
One minute, you’re feeling like you might just need a little rehab. The next, doctors are telling you, “Yeah, you might not be the same if you don’t get surgery.” That’s a reality check no athlete wants to hear.
Now, Jiménez is locked into rehab mode, with a recovery timeline of eight to twelve months. If everything goes well, he might return around the All-Star break in mid-July—conveniently hosted by Atlanta this year. But if the recovery takes longer, he could be out for the entire 2025 season.
Jiménez’s mindset is simple: control what he can control. No excuses. No complaints. Just a day-by-day grind to get back on the mound.
And if his resilience last season was any indication, don’t be surprised if he comes back stronger than ever.
