GOODYEAR, Ariz. – Jim Jarvis had gone 14 weeks and a day since his last homer before he connected on one to right-center for the Glendale Desert Dogs in the lead game of an Arizona Fall League tripleheader at Goodyear Ballpark on Saturday.
A lot has happened for the 24-year-old infielder between dingers.
For starters, he was traded from the Tigers to the Braves on July 31, the final day of the Trade Deadline, in a deal that sent reliever Rafael Montero the other way. Then on Aug. 28 while with Triple-A Gwinnett, he was hit in the nose on a freak 50-foot pitch that bounced off the grass and into the middle of his face. He suffered fractures on both sides of the nose, though there was no lasting damage to his septum, thus ending his regular season.
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But for the limited time he’s been in the Atlanta system – and the lost time he suffered late in the year – Jarvis seems to be getting comfortable with his fellow Braves. Comfortable enough to use their equipment just ahead of going deep for the first time since July 11.
“It's actually, honestly, it's all due to Pat Clohisy’s bat,” he said of his fellow Brave and Glendale teammate . “We traded bats, and I used it today, kind of as a joke. But it's got knocks in it.”
The left-handed-hitting infielder isn’t just in the AFL to make up for lost time, as many Fall Leaguers are, considering he still got in 413 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A this summer. The Braves had actually talked to him about coming to the desert even before the unfortunate plunking, but the pause in play allowed them to discuss adjustments, specifically those that would help improve his 48.2 percent groundball rate.
“They let me play the rest of the season,” and then after I got injured, I went down to Florida, had some good conversations with them, and then I’m just trying to work on stuff now,” he said. “... It's kind of positioning stuff and just like the way I'm setting up, trying to be in less of a steep angle.”
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An 11th-round pick by the Tigers out of Alabama in 2023, Jarvis hit .249/.324/.347 with two homers and 14 steals in his 101 games during the regular season. He was primarily known for putting the bat on the ball with an overall contact rate of 81.5 percent and a strikeout rate of just 13.1 percent across the top two levels of the Minors. But the quality of that contact was lacking because of the aforementioned wormburners.
Jarvis’ status as an infielder capable of covering shortstop, third base and second base – he’s played all three in Arizona – also made him an interesting fit for a trade between the two organizations. With the Tigers, he was bumping up against Kevin McGonigle (DET No. 1/MLB No. 2), Hao-Yu Lee (DET No. 6) and Max Anderson (DET No. 9) as upper-level options on the dirt with Bryce Rainer (DET No. 4/MLB No. 37) and Franyerber Montilla (DET No. 12) coming up from behind. With the Braves, only one infielder ranks among their Top 30 with Double-A or Triple-A experience: No. 29 David McCabe.
As it stands now, the path to Atlanta appears clearer for a potential Major League debut than the one to Detroit.
“I try not to look into that stuff too much just because I feel like you can get lost in that,” he said. “That's completely out of my control. All I can really say is that Kevin [McGonigle] and Max [Anderson] are like my best friends, so it sucks having to leave them. But they're also really good players, so it's nice not having to compete against them.”
Instead, Jarvis’ focus is more faced inward, where he’ll take some delight in how he was able to lift the ball with a 33-degree launch angle for Saturday’s homer, his first in an Atlanta uniform.
As luck would have it, the Tigers and Braves were Spring Breakout opponents on March 16 with Jarvis entering as a sixth-inning substitute for Rainer at shortstop. He didn’t know it then, but in that showcase setting, he had present and future teammates on both sides of the diamond.
“I remember just seeing a lot of talent on the field,” he said.