Athletes are put into tough situations when it comes to media interviews. The media wants to talk to players before games, after games, when a player screws up or hits the game-winning home run, when a player gets called up, etc. The demand for interviews is crazy. And it puts the players in the position to have their words taken out of context or blasted for how they answered a simple question. Jared Jones found himself in that situation over the past 48 hours.
THE INTERVIEW AND THE AFTERMATH
First, let’s talk about what happened. Jones made a rebab start for Double-A Altoona after tossing four shutout innings, he was asked if he would be pitching out of the bullpen once he’s back in Pittsburgh. Here’s the video from Riley Holsinger:
At first Jones thought the reporter had asked if he would throw a bullpen to which Jones said “yeah I’ll throw a bullpen once I get back to Pittsburgh.” The reporter then clarified “I mean, will you work out of the bullpen?” Jones answered quickly while shaking his head: “No…next question.”
The media and social media took this simple exchange and framed it as Jones being a diva, he’s arrogant, selfish, not a team player, etc. I couldn’t some of the comments I came across on social media…
It got to the point where Greg Brown felt the need to tweet this out:
Brownie’s tweet gives some more context to why Jones looked annoyed when answering the question if he told the media at Altoona that he only wanted to talk about the performance that day, but again he still answered it.
A LOSE-LOSE SITUATION
And there we have the lose-lose situation for athletes when being interviewed. They’ll get blasted for giving the Bull Durham quote “Good Lord willing, things will work out and I just want to help the team win.” When players give media members stock quotes like that they’ll criticize them for being robotic and not authentic. Then when a player gives an actual, genuine answer like Jones did…suddenly they’re selfish and all about themselves and not for the team. It’s a no-win situation essentially. The fans and media constantly ask for authenticity until they actually get it from a player.
If Jones comes out and says “Hey I’ll do whatever the team wants that helps them win,” he’s called generic, robotic and too PR-coached. These players never give us anything!
And if he says “No, I’m a starter,” he’s called selfish and a diva.
The contradiction is staggering in some of these media interviews. Doesn’t really make you excited to talk to the media after something like that, does it? Barry Bonds was deemed a bad dude by the media because he was short in interviews or didn’t give interviews and was standoffish with the media. Well when your words get taken out of context one too many times or the media runs with some narrative about how you answered something, it would turn off a lot of people from wanting to deal with the media at all.
And let’s be honest—his response wasn’t even that egregious. He literally answered the question quickly: “No…next question.” Jared Jones didn’t curse, he didn’t raise his voice, he didn’t insult the reporter, he didn’t storm off, he didn’t criticize the organization, he didn’t pull a Mike Ditka or Jim Mora and start flying off the handle, he didn’t say “I’m just here so I don’t get fined,” and he didn’t even ignore the question. He answered the question succinctly and moved on. I have no problem with the answer he gave. The backlash from the interview sort of treated the moment like he had some kind of meltdown when it wasn’t.
I’m honestly surprised it even became as big of a story as it did. It was a nothing burger for me. He was asked a question, one where he apparently told them not to bring up beforehand, he answered it truthfully and that was that.
JONES IS A STARTER
Jones underwent season-ending surgery last May when he had elbow surgery to repair his right UCL. His recovery has been going well with no setbacks and his rehabs have been fun to watch. Lost in this ridiculous aftermath and diva nonsense is that Jones is a starting pitcher. His answer, while short, was the correct one. The organization sees it that way, Jones sees it that way and he’s pitching very well in these rehab starts as a starter. He’s going to be a part of the Pirates starting rotation very soon. Jones and the organization have almost certainly discussed his role internally upon him returning to the active roster so Jones, like myself, views these questions as foolish. Jones was developed as a starter, he pitched in the rotation prior to the injury as a starter and that’s clearly what his role will be once he’s healthy and ramped up.
There’s this strange clamoring among some fans that Jones should pitch out of the bullpen to limit his innings as he comes back from injury and that’s where this silly question stemmed from in that interview. As if because he essentially has two good pitches, he can go to the bullpen and instantly be the next Mason Miller. It’s foolish and a pipe dream. Yes, Jones is confident maybe even bordering cocky, but that’s what you want in a starting pitcher. You want them to want to take the ball every fifth day with the confidence that they’re going to shove it down the opposing team’s throat. Pitching out of the bullpen while coming back from a major elbow surgery when you’ve never been on a bullpen schedule before or pitched out of the pen before either doesn’t make sense with Jones in my opinion.
Jones giving a direct answer doesn’t mean he’s selfish, he just knows what his role is on this team and has most likely discussed it internally with Ben Cherington and Don Kelly already. The whole bullpen discussion is a non-point and Jones shut it down without causing a scene. Nothing to see here.
MEDIA TODAY
This whole situation says more about modern sports discourse than it does about Jared Jones. Every quote becomes overanalyzed and every non-generic answer becomes a personality controversy and an attack on the player’s character. It’s a shame that this story ever became a talking point.
But I’ll close this article with these takeaways:
Jared Jones’ answer to the bullpen question was perfectly fine, I had no problem with it. I don’t believe he’s a bad guy or a diva. And let’s not be all up in arms next time when a player is authentic and gives a real answer.
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