Bobby Jenks

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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 Partner Pioneer 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, 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]

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References

  1. 1 2 Jacobs, Scott (November 11, 2005). "The Joy of Baseball". The Week Behind. Archived from the original on February 28, 2006. Retrieved February 28, 2006.
  2. ↑ "5th Round of the 2000 MLB June Amateur Draft". Baseball-Reference.com . Retrieved August 2, 2022.
  3. ↑ Modesti, Kevin (October 17, 2005). "Angels' castoff Jenks now White Sox's savior". Daily Breeze . Retrieved August 2, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Friday roundup: Valentin to sign with Dodgers". ESPN . Associated Press. December 17, 2004. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
  5. ↑ "Sweet redemption for Jenks". The Seattle Times . October 11, 2005. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
  6. ↑ "Bobby Jenks Minor Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference.com . Retrieved August 2, 2022.
  7. ↑ "Jenks saves game then gets call to the Majors". OurSports Central. July 5, 2005. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
  8. ↑ "Bobby Jenks Postseason Pitching Game Logs". Baseball-Reference.com . Retrieved August 2, 2022.
  9. 1 2 "Bobby Jenks Stats". Baseball-Reference.com . Retrieved August 2, 2022.
  10. ↑ "Jenks earns second All-Star bid". MLB.com . MLB Advanced Media. July 1, 2007. Archived from the original on February 20, 2008. Retrieved August 20, 2007.
  11. ↑ "Fields bashes two homers as White Sox deflate M's". ESPN . Associated Press. August 11, 2007. Archived from the original on October 26, 2022. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
  12. ↑ Gyr, Alex (August 12, 2007). "Sox muzzled by Weaver". Chicago White Sox . MLB.com. Archived from the original on February 20, 2008. Retrieved August 12, 2007.
  13. ↑ "Aug 21, 2007, Royals at White Sox Play by Play and Box Score". Baseball-Reference.com . Sports Reference. August 21, 2007.
  14. ↑ Gyr, Alex (August 21, 2007). "Jenks' amazing run comes to an end". Chicago White Sox . MLB.com. Archived from the original on August 24, 2007. Retrieved August 31, 2007.
  15. ↑ "Buehrle sets major league record, but takes loss when Twins rally". ESPN . Associated Press. July 28, 2009. Retrieved August 2, 2022.[ dead link ]
  16. ↑ Merkin, Scott (January 19, 2009). "Jenks signs one-year pact with Sox". MLB.com . MLB Advanced Media. Archived from the original on October 26, 2012. Retrieved October 26, 2012.
  17. ↑ https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=jenksbo01&t=p&year=2009
  18. ↑ Cowley, Joe (December 2, 2010). "White Sox cut ties with closer Bobby Jenks". Chicago Sun-Times . Archived from the original on December 5, 2010. Retrieved December 5, 2010.
  19. ↑ Edes, Gordon (December 16, 2010). "Source: Red Sox, Jenks reach 2-year contract". ESPN . Retrieved December 16, 2010.
  20. ↑ Browne, Ian (December 21, 2010). "Red Sox finalize two-year contract with pitcher Bobby Jenks". Boston Red Sox . MLB.com. Archived from the original on December 24, 2010. Retrieved December 24, 2010.
  21. ↑ McDonald, Joe (September 13, 2011). "Red Sox hurler Jenks has pulmonary embolism". ESPN . Retrieved August 2, 2022.
  22. ↑ McDonald, Joe (February 23, 2012). "Red Sox's Jenks had life-threatening back issue". ESPN . Retrieved February 23, 2012.
  23. ↑ "Bobby Jenks Striving to Overcome Botched Back Surgery that Could Have Been Fatal". NESN . February 23, 2012. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
  24. ↑ Britton, Tim (February 24, 2012). "Jenks bad year was followed by scary offseason". The Providence Journal . Archived from the original on September 6, 2012. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
  25. ↑ Nicholson-Smith, Ben (July 3, 2012). "Red Sox Release Bobby Jenks". MLB Trade Rumors. Retrieved July 3, 2012.
  26. ↑ Abelson, Jenn; Saltzman, Jonathan; Kowalczyk, Liz (October 25, 2015). "Clash in the name of care". The Boston Globe . Retrieved October 25, 2015.
  27. 1 2 3 Saltzman, Jonathan (May 8, 2019). "Former Red Sox pitcher settles claim with doctor, MGH for $5.1 million" . The Boston Globe . Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  28. ↑ "Grand Junction Rockies - Pioneer Baseball League - team roster". Pointstreak Sports Technologies. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
  29. ↑ "Grand Junction Rockies name Bobby Jenks Manager". Minor League Baseball . March 17, 2022. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
  30. ↑ Farris, Gene. "Former White Sox reliever Bobby Jenks named manager of minor-league ThunderBolts," Chicago Sun-Times, Thursday, October 26, 2023. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
  31. ↑ Monreal, Jane (February 20, 2020). "Former MLB player claims surgery ruined his career". WFTX-TV . Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  32. ↑ https://www.theplayerstribune.com/articles/bobby-jenks-baseball-scar-tissue
Bobby Jenks
Bobby Jenks 2011.jpg
Jenks with the Boston Red Sox
Windy City ThunderBolts – No. 45
Pitcher / Manager
Born: (1981-03-14) March 14, 1981 (age 43)
Mission Hills, California, U.S.
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
MLB debut
July 6, 2005, for the Chicago White Sox
Last MLB appearance
July 7, 2011, for the Boston Red Sox
Manager 13 Ozzie Guillén
Bench Coach 3 Harold Baines
Pitching Coach 21 Don Cooper
Third Base Coach 28 Joey Cora
Hitting Coach 29 Greg Walker
First Base Coach 30 Tim Raines
Bullpen Coach 53 Art Kusnyer
Bullpen Catcher 59 Man-soo Lee
General Manager Kenny Williams
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