Jimenez said Sunday that he's not expected to require surgery on his strained right shoulder and is optimistic that he'll be ready to go for spring training, Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Jimenez's season came to an end Saturday, when the Athletics placed him on the 60-day injured list due to the shoulder injury. Fortunately, Jimenez looks like he'll be able to treat the injury through rest and rehab, but the time he'll miss down the stretch could prove costly in his bid to open the 2023 campaign as the Athletics' closer. When healthy, Jimenez had served as the Athletics' primary end gamer in 2022 and notched a team-high 11 saves to go along with respectable ratios (3.41 ERA, 1.19 WHIP and 11 K-BB%), but his lack of extensive MLB experience and uncertain health coming off the shoulder injury hardly make him a safe bet to regain the closer's role next spring.