The Pirates placed Jared Jones on the 15-day IL Thursday morning and recalled Joshua Palacios from Class AAA Indianapolis.
Jones pitched five innings of four-hit ball Wednesday night against the Cardinals and struck out five. In his postgame press conference, Derek Shelton said Jones had been dealing with a right lat strain and was limited out of an abundance of caution.
Jones mentioned that he could have kept pitching but it would have been “really stupid.” He hadn’t pitched since beating the Rays on June 22, as his turn in the rotation was skipped last week.
Palacios has been in the minors for all of 2024, dealing with a lower-leg injury. He was placed on the injured list on April 12 and was activated from the 7-day IL on June 11.
“I’ve been through a lot of things in my life, so my family keeps reminding me to have perspective, like, ‘Hey, this is a game. There are worse things that could happen to you,'” Palacios said about working through his injury. “So I just stayed focused and stayed on track and focused on what I had to do every day. Eventually, things get better, which they did.”
Palacios mentioned that he started to feel like himself again once he was able to play every day. In 21 games in Indianapolis, Palacios hit .311 with five doubles, one home run, and eight RBIs.
“Just being able to play every day, being free and playing every day and starting to catch my rhythm,” Palacios said about feeling himself again. “Then getting to catch some Ws with the boys down there, got exciting and I just started to feel like I was getting back to myself and now we’re rolling.”
In 2023, Palacios played in 91 games for the Pirates, hitting .239 with 40 RBIs and 10 home runs. He’s looking to replicate that feeling during this stint.
“It’s like a family here, and I’m more excited to just hang out with the boys and just go do what we did last year and enjoy things than trying to do something special,” he said. “Just wanna hang with the boys, do what we do, and it’s gonna be a fun time.”