The Mets made a quiet move early this offseason, signing left-handed reliever Joe Jacques to a minor league deal. It’s not the kind of acquisition that turns heads, but it’s one that fits into a broader strategy-adding depth to a bullpen that could use a few more reliable arms heading into spring training.
Jacques is a sidearmer who’s had brief stints with the Red Sox and Diamondbacks, though he didn’t appear in the majors at all during the 2025 season. On paper, there’s not a ton that jumps off the page.
His ERA and strikeout numbers don’t scream “impact reliever,” and he’s bounced around a bit over the past couple years. But there’s one thing Jacques does exceptionally well: keep the ball on the ground.
In 2023, across just 26.2 big league innings, Jacques posted a 64.0% ground ball rate-good for sixth in the league among pitchers who faced at least 100 batters that season. That’s not just solid; it puts him in the same conversation as some of the game’s most effective sinkerballers, including Jhoan Duran, Brusdar Graterol, and his new Mets teammate Clay Holmes. That’s elite company when it comes to inducing weak contact.
Jacques leans heavily on a three-pitch mix: a sinker that dives late, a sweeping breaking ball, and an occasional slider with a slightly different shape. He’s not going to overpower hitters, but the combination of movement and deception from his low arm slot makes him a tough matchup, especially for lefties. His delivery is unorthodox, and while that can sometimes lead to command issues, it also adds to the difficulty for hitters trying to square him up.
A New Jersey native and Manhattan College product, Jacques was originally a 33rd-round pick by the Pirates back in 2018. He climbed the minor league ladder slowly and was eventually picked up by the Red Sox in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft after a breakout 2022 campaign. He made his MLB debut in June of 2023, though it was a bit anticlimactic-he faced just one batter before a rain delay ended his outing.
He went on to make 23 more appearances for Boston, finishing his time there with a 5.08 ERA and 22 strikeouts over 28.1 innings. After a single outing in 2024, the Sox designated him for assignment, and he was picked up by Arizona.
He made just one appearance for the D-backs before being traded to Seattle midseason in 2025 via the Dodgers. Despite being added to the Mariners’ active roster, he never saw the mound for them at the big league level, spending the rest of the year in Triple-A.
Since leaving Boston, Jacques hasn’t had much major league success. But relievers are notoriously volatile, and with limited public data from the minors-especially in hitter-friendly leagues like the Pacific Coast League-it’s tough to say if his recent struggles are the result of declining stuff, bad luck, or just the noise that comes with small sample sizes.
The Mets are clearly hoping it’s the latter. With a minor league option still in play and a profile built around ground balls, Jacques could be a sneaky useful piece if he clicks in the right environment. A change of scenery, a move out of the PCL, and some time in the Mets’ well-regarded pitching lab might be just what he needs.
If Jacques can rediscover the form that got him to the majors in the first place-and keep pounding the bottom of the zone-he could find himself back in a big league bullpen before long. For now, he’s a depth piece. But in the unpredictable world of relief pitching, that’s sometimes all it takes to become something more.