Jesus Tinoco was a Ranger in 2024
With the 2024 regular season over, it is time for us to go back and take a look at the players who appeared for the Texas Rangers this season.
Today, we look at pitcher Jesus Tinoco.
Maybe you are thinking to yourself, hey, Jesus Tinoco wasn’t on the 2024 Rangers team, he was on the 2022 Rangers team. And you’d be half right! Jesus Tinoco was a member of the 2022 Texas Rangers, memorably giving up a home run to Aaron Judge to start Game 161 of the season, the home run that was #62 of the season for Judge, giving him the American League single season home run record and sparking arguments about whether Judge was the “real” single season home run champion.*
* (I had predicted a few days earlier that Judge would get #62 against Kolby Allard. Allard allowed nine home runs in 21 innings in 2022, including one to Giancarlo Stanton in Game 161. If Tony Beasley had started Allard rather than going with Tinoco as an opener, I think I would have been right.)
Tinoco also, though, spent a brief period in the big leagues with the Rangers this year. You’re forgiven if you don’t remember, as it was relatively early in the season, and during a time when the Rangers were making us unhappy. Tinoco’s first appearance was on May 23, in a loss to the Phillies that dropped the Rangers to 24-29 on the season. His last appearance was on June 15, in a game that the Rangers lost to the Mariners in Seattle to go to 33-37 on the year.
I remember that last game. It was the middle game of what turned out to be a three game weekend series where the Rangers got swept. Tinoco pitched the eighth with the Rangers down 5-1, allowed a single, a walk, another walk, and then a single that brought two runs in to make it 7-1, which we figured didn’t matter because, what, like the Rangers were going to score 4 runs in the ninth to tie the game?
The Rangers did, in fact, score four runs in the ninth and tie the game. And they had Corey Seager at the plate as the go-ahead run with two outs in the inning. Seager grounded out, the Rangers lost 7-5, and those who were so inclined to do so could lament Tinoco’s contribution to the loss, the fact that at least Texas could have forced extra innings but for his one inning, two run outing.
The Rangers were 1-8 in games that Tinoco appeared in. He came into the game with a lead only twice, and in one of them gave up a run to make it a one run Rangers lead instead of a two run Rangers lead, though the three run homer David Robertson gave up an inning later meant that it didn’t matter if Tinoco had given up a run.
Or maybe it did. You see, Tinoco started the seventh inning of that game against the Twins with Texas up 3-1. He gave up a single and a walk, retired a batter on a K, then was pulled for David Robertson. Robertson walked a batter before giving up the sacrifice fly that resulted in Tinoco getting dinged for a run.
Maybe if Robertson hadn’t been asked to get the final two outs of the seventh inning, he would have been fresher, sharper, to start the eighth, and wouldn’t have allowed the three run homer that gave Minnesota the lead. Maybe Robertson could have thrown a scoreless eighth, Kirby Yates a scoreless ninth, and the Rangers would have won the game and gained some momentum.
Or maybe the Twins went into the bottom of the seventh demoralized, disheartened by not being able to score more than one run off of Michael Lorenzen, and were emotionally checked out before getting a shot in the arm by getting the first two batters on against Tinoco. Maybe they were spiritually drained, already thinking about the next game and chalking up this one as a loss, until the unexpected opportunity to rally arose and they get back into things.
But probably not.
The last six times he pitched the Rangers were trailing by multiple runs and he came into the game relatively late, which does not lend itself to outings that etch themselves into one’s memory. He was finally designated for assignment in mid-June to make room on the active roster for Cole Winn.
Believe it or not, Tinoco was with three other organizations this year besides the Rangers. He elected free agency after clearing waivers after being DFA’d and signed with the Kansas City Royals, for whom he toiled in the minors. The Chicago Cubs purchased him from the Royals on July 16 and put him in their bullpen, and then he was claimed on waivers from the Cubs by the Marlins on July 30, joining their bullpen for the rest of the season.
Tinoco had an 8.10 ERA in 10 innings for the Rangers, but put up a 1.76 ERA and 2.03 FIP in his time with the Cubs and the Marlins. After signing minor league deals with the Rangers in 2022 and 2024, and spending 2023 pitching in Japan, maybe Tinoco will stick around on the Marlins’ 40 man roster over the winter, and he’ll be in a major league camp on a major league deal come February 2025.