Ubaldo Jimenez: "It was pretty clear that I wasn't doing my job"

BOSTON - Orioles manager Buck Showalter didn't address the topic in vague terms when he called pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez into his office yesterday at Fenway Park and explained why the veteran right-hander was coming out of the rotation.

"It was pretty clear that I wasn't doing my job and obviously they have to find a way or someone that can get the job done," Jimenez said earlier today. "I'm going to go to the bullpen and hopefully I can get back on track and try to help the team however I can."

Jimenez saw the writing on the wall after retiring only one Toronto batter on Sunday. The stat sheet also told the story, including a 6.89 ERA and 1.979 WHIP.

"Maybe, yeah, of course," he said. "It didn't go the way I wanted it to, and obviously, they're going to be looking for someone that can help the team out. Obviously, I couldn't do it as a starter."

The Orioles made the same decision with Jimenez in 2014, but it came much later. He made three relief appearances, the first on Aug. 23 at Wrigley Field, when he allowed one run and struck out five batters in four innings.

Jimenez doesn't know whether he'll benefit from the latest switch, "but I'm going to do everything possible to get back on track," he said. "We still have four more months of the season to go, so I have to find a way to help the team out. It doesn't matter how."

What matters is figuring out why Jimenez continues to lack command of his pitches, why he's again chasing the plate and getting hit hard when he finds it. Mechanics typically are to blame, with an unorthodox delivery that's hard to repeat.

Asked whether he knows what's wrong, Jimenez replied, "No, not really."

"I go out there feeling good physically and mentally, and I just think things weren't going my way," he said. "Hopefully, this is going to change."

Jimenez acknowledges that the bullpen doesn't allow for the same periods of extra work, as he discovered in 2014.

"I wouldn't say that going to the bullpen that year helped me," he said. "Obviously, if you're in the bullpen, you don't have a lot of time to work because you have to be ready for whenever. But I did improve. I kept fighting and I found a way to survive in 2014 and that's what I'm looking forward to doing. Keep working. And however I can help the team out, that's what I'm going to be doing.

"My confidence is never going to go down. I keep my head up, no matter what, and I know that if I get back on track I can help the team out. It doesn't matter how."

He's been unable to assist a team in desperate need of consistency and production from its rotation. The effort isn't lacking, just the results.

"It's been really tough," he said. "Every time you don't do what you're supposed to do, it's no fun at all. That's part of life. That's part of baseball. You have to find a way to keep moving forward, no matter how. You have to find a way."