Mississippi Braves right-hander Tyrell Jenkins hasn’t yet reached the big time, but the big time has definitely reached him.
The Braves’ 13th-ranked prospect by Baseball America is good friends with Robert Griffin III. Jenkins, a native of Henderson, Texas, signed to be Griffin’s successor as quarterback at Baylor when the St. Louis Cardinals drafted him 50th overall in the compensatory round in 2010.
Jenkins has taken — and tried to offer in return — advice from Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright on dealing with a season-ending injury. And Sunday, he used a near no-hitter by his golfing buddy and fellow St. Louis-to-Atlanta trade piece, Shelby Miller, to get fired up for his latest start in Double-A.
“When (the Marlins) broke it up I felt like they broke up a no-hitter from the whole organization,” said Jenkins, who watched the last three innings from the visiting clubhouse in Pensacola, Fla., before taking the mound. “He pitched a great game. It motivated me to go out and do the same.”
Like Miller, Jenkins is doing his part to validate the Braves’ end of the November trade that sent Jason Heyward and Jordan Walden to St. Louis for Miller and Jenkins. Jenkins pitched seven shutout innings Sunday, despite walking five and never having a good feel for his change-up. He entered his start Friday against Jacksonville 2-2 with a 3.00 ERA in eight starts, having allowed just one run over 20 innings in his previous three starts.
Most important to Jenkins, he’s thrown 45 1/3 innings, which is more than halfway to his career-high of 82 1/3 innings in 2012. That was the year he tore his latissimus muscle for the first time. He tore it again in 2013, this time a 95 percent tear.
After some soul-searching and convincing from his mom that he’d made the right decision to play baseball and needed to stick with it, Jenkins underwent the same experimental shoulder surgery Jake Peavy had. Jenkins said his case was only the second performed on a pitcher by Chicago surgeon Anthony Romeo.
Jenkins returned from a 10-month rehabilitation in June and posted a 3.28 ERA in 13 starts in high Single-A and a 2.22 ERA in six starts in the Arizona Fall League before he was traded.
Jenkins’ four-seam fastball is back up in the mid-90s — he’s touched 96 mph this year — and he pitched seven innings in each of his past two starts.
He’s earned a reputation in the Braves organization for being good in the clubhouse and engaging with fans. It might explain why Jenkins developed close friendships with guys such as Miller, Griffin, and Wainwright.
Jenkins was watching the Cardinals game last month when Wainwright tore his Achilles, and he texted Wainwright right away. He said Wainwright kept bringing the conversation back to him, and how he was doing with the Braves. Wainwright is a former first-round pick of the Braves.
“He told me it’s a great organization to be in, a great pitching organization,” Jenkins said. “He told me to listen and be open to (coaching), and he told me that he’ll see me in September.”
The Cardinals come to Atlanta the final three games of the regular season. Technically it’s October, but Jenkins hadn’t actually looked at the Braves schedule to check. He’s focused on the work he has to do to get a September call-up.
“Hopefully I get to see him then,” Jenkins said.
