According to the Baseball Almanac, his fastest pitch was clocked at 102 miles per hour (164 km/h) on August 27, 2005, at Safeco Field. He also threw a slider; a changeup; and a hard, sharp-breaking curveball. Jenks is third all time in saves by a White Sox pitcher. Jenks is a two-time All-Star who formerly held the major league record for retiring consecutive batters (41).
Amateur career
Jenks was not able to play with his teammates at Timberlake High School, in Spirit Lake, Idaho or Inglemoor High School in Kenmore, Washington, because of poor grades.[1] Jenks did play his sophomore year of high school for Lakeland High School before Timberlake High School was opened in 1998. Since Jenks was ineligible to play the remaining years of his high school career due to poor academic performance, he played in the Prairie Cardinals American Legion program where he dominated as both a pitcher and hitter. During his final season for the Prairie Cardinals, Jenks had 123 strikeouts in 92 innings pitched.
Professional career
Anaheim Angels
Jenks was drafted by the Anaheim Angels in the fifth round (140th overall) of the 2000 Major League Baseball Draft.[2] In one minor league game, the radar gun clocked his fastball at 100 mph.[1] During his time with the Angels organization, Jenks spent much of his time on the disabled list because of elbow trouble. Jenks' career with the Angels ended when he was designated for assignment by the team in December 2004.[3]
Chicago White Sox
On December 17, 2004, Jenks was claimed off of waivers by the Chicago White Sox for $20,000.[4][5] He was sent to the club's Double-A affiliate, the Birmingham Barons to begin the 2005 season, posting a 1–2 with 19 saves and a 2.85 ERA in 35 appearances.[6] Jenks was called up to the major leagues by the White Sox on July 5, 2005.[7] The White Sox made it to the 2005 World Series, and Jenks pitched in each of the Series' four games. The White Sox won the series in four straight games over the Houston Astros, and Jenks pitched a total of five innings and made the series' final pitch. He recorded saves in Games 1 and 4, had a blown save in Game 2, and pitched scoreless 11th and 12th innings in the 14-inning Game 3.[8] Jenks and Adam Wainwright of the 2006St. Louis Cardinals are the only rookie closers to earn a save in the clinching game of a World Series.
In 2006, Jenks was selected to the American League All-Star team, and finished the season 3–4 with a 4.00 ERA while converting 41 out of 45 save opportunities in 67 relief appearances.[9] Jenks was again selected to the American League All-Star team in 2007.[10] On September 25, 2007, Jenks was named as one of 10 finalist for the "DHL Presents the Major League Baseball Delivery Man of the Year Award".
In 2007, Jenks pursued a record streak of retiring consecutive batters. On August 10, 2007, Jenks retired his 38th consecutive hitter, Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners, to tie the American League record for most consecutive batters retired in a row, set by David Wells between May 12, 1998, and May 23, 1998, then with the New York Yankees.[11]
On August 12, 2007, in a game against the Seattle Mariners, Jenks retired his 41st consecutive batter,[12] the Mariners' Yuniesky Betancourt,[13] tying the Major League record held by San Francisco Giants pitcher Jim Barr, set over two games on August 23, 1972, and August 29, 1972. On August 20, 2007, Jenks allowed a base hit by Kansas City Royals outfielder Joey Gathright, ending his streak of 41 consecutive batters retired. However, Jenks was still able to get a save during the game.[14]
Jenks' record is unique in that the previous record holders were starting pitchers. Wells' achievement bookended a perfect game that he pitched on May 17, 1998. Barr's achievement was spread across two games, neither of which was a no-hitter. In contrast, Jenks was perfect for 14 appearances over 27 days (July 17- August 12). His teammate Mark Buehrle broke the record for most consecutive batters retired on July 28, 2009, ending with 45 in a row.[15]
On January 19, 2009, Jenks avoided arbitration and signed a one-year, $5.6 million contract.[16] That year, his ERA ballooned to 4.44 while making 27 saves and pitching 52+2⁄3 innings with 61 strikeouts in 55 appearances.[17]
On December 2, 2010, the White Sox declined to tender him a contract and he became a free agent.[18]
Boston Red Sox
On December 21, 2010, Jenks signed a two-year, $12 million contract with the Boston Red Sox.[19][20] Jenks struggled for much of 2011 with injuries, going on the disabled list three times during the season. A bicep strain that had sent him to the injured list saw him try to gut it out for the rest of the season. A June game against the Yankees saw him get hurt when trying to throw a four-seam fastball that saw him describe the pain as "almost like a spoon had been shoved into my back." He stated that this is when he started taking pain medication, mostly with Perocet. It was his teammate Tim Wakefield that suggested for Jenks to get MRI images on his spine. From those images came a finding that Jenks had spurs on his spine that were impacting on his nerves and calcifying tendons. He soon developed a blood clot that moved up to his lung. On September 13, 2011, the Red Sox announced that Jenks had been diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism; he soon came down with colitis as well.[21] He pitched in 19 games during the season, going 2–2 with an ERA of 6.32.[9]
Surgery complications
On December 12, 2011, Jenks had another surgery, this time to remove bone spurs from his back. According to Jenks, he was supposed to have two levels of his spine decompressed. Dr. Kirkham Wood, head of the orthopedic bone unit at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) did not finish the second level of decompressing. This allegedly created a serrated edge that later sliced Jenks' back open in two places (specifically the membrane around his spinal cord in the dural sac), causing him to leak spinal fluid and triggering an infection in his spine. Jenks was forced to undergo emergency surgery on December 28, only two weeks after his first back procedure. With an infection in his back that went nearly to the brain stem and muscles being "torn open", Jenks was bedridden for three months. The Red Sox placed Jenks on the 60-day disabled list, and ruled him out for at least the first three months of the 2012 season.[22][23][24]
On July 3, 2012, Jenks was released by the Red Sox.[25] He sued Wood in 2015 for malpractice after learning that Wood was operating on a second patient at the same time as his operation (in what was called "concurrent surgery") and effectively rushed through the surgery of Jenks to get to his other patient. Jenks told The Boston Globe that he would have had his bone spur surgery elsewhere had he known about the overlapping schedules.[26] On May 8, 2019, Jenks reached a settlement with MGH and Wood for $5.1 million.[27]
Despite roughly a year of recovery, scanning of his spine found that Jenks had a weak spine that required further surgery just to try to give him a pain-free life, specifically with plates and screws. He elected to take the surgery and retired from baseball.
Coaching career
Beginning in May 2021, Jenks served as the pitching coach for the Grand Junction Rockies of the MLB PartnerPioneer League.[28] Following the 2021 season, he was promoted to manager following the retirement of the team's previous manager Jimmy Johnson.[29] He received the Manager of the Year award in 2022 after leading the Rockies to a championship. After spending the 2023 campaign as the pitching coach with the Princeton WhistlePigs, he was named manager of the Windy City ThunderBolts on October 26 of that year.[30]
Personal
Jenks has been married twice; he is currently married to Eleni Tzitzivacos, and has five children.[27] As of May 2019[update], he lived in Malibu, California.[27]
Jenks became addicted to painkillers shortly after his back injury and at one point was taking "probably up to 60+ pills a day. And, on some days that was probably on the low side." An attempt to detox for a week before going to spring training in 2012 led him to go back to ordering through a "pill mill" a day after detoxing. Jenks wrote about his experiences with addiction in 2019 for the The Players' Tribune, where he once mixed Percocet and Ambien when alone at his apartment in Fort Myers, Florida for spring training that saw him lay out his food from his refrigerator onto the floor before stabbing his television with a knife. Between March and July 2012, he was arrested and charged twice for driving under the influence of painkillers. His family attempted an intervention in May, which saw him go for inpatient rehab. He eventually admitted to himself and others about being both an alcoholic and an addict; he also went through a divorce and depression after his 2013 surgery. As of 2019, he was seven years and three months sober while being an advocate for being against concurrent surgeries.[31][32]
References
^ abJacobs, Scott (November 11, 2005). "The Joy of Baseball". The Week Behind. Archived from the original on February 28, 2006. Retrieved February 28, 2006.
