The comeback of Nate Jones is finally complete

Heading into the 2014 season, Chicago White Sox reliever Nate Jones was supposed to be the team’s closer. However, he suffered an injured before Cactus League action started.

Then, after returning for spring training games, started the season on the White Sox active roster as the primary set-up man to the newly acquired Matt Lindstrom. He lasted two outings, and recorded zero outs while allowing four earned runs, walking three, and failing to record a strikeout. He was placed on the 15-day disabled list after the injury from February flared back up in April.

It seemed he would get a chance to correct his ERA of, wait for it, infinity on the young season. Then, while rehabbing during his time on the disabled list, the right-handed reliever “felt a burning sensation” in his forearm and had an MRI scheduled.

His road back to the White Sox bullpen was about to get a whole lot longer. He received word he tore his ulnar collateral ligament and would need Tommy John surgery. What started as rehab for a gluteal strain suddenly became recovering from the most famous surgery in baseball. Jones, and the White Sox knew he would be gone for more than a year, leaving the team devoid of a set closer heading into the 2014 off-season.

Lindstrom and fellow veteran Ronald Belisario floundered in the role and despite rookie Jake Petricka pacing Major League rookies in games saved last year (14), the team saw him there as a necessity, not a permanent option. Knowing Jones would be out for half the season at least likely led to the signing of David Robertson this past winter, leaving Jones working towards a set-up role, not the closer spot he was supposed to lock down in the eyes of many.