The White Sox have officially announced that outfielder Eloy Jimenez will open the season on the active MLB roster. Outfielder Jon Jay and righty Ian Hamilton have been placed on the injured list, with outfielder Ryan Cordell joining Jimenez in the majors.
Jimenez, the organization’s top prospect, had previously been optioned down but went on to sign a precedent-setting extension. That no doubt played a significant role in today’s decision, but the ensuing loss of Jay to a hip strain also cleared a path.
The hope will be that Jimenez emerges as a star from the outset of his MLB career. But with the club now controlling him for eight full seasons, thereby obviating any service-time considerations, it can make its future roster decisions with reference only to team need and Jimenez’s development.
First
Good luck to Eloy!
MVP!
I get that the extension eliminated the reason to keep him in the minors, but changing course and promoting him basically proves that they only optioned him for service time reasons (if it wasn’t obvious already).
They kind of undermined themselves here.
No, Eloy needed to replace JJ due to injury.
Read the article.
The Jon Jay tidbit was added to the post after my comment went through.
I did read the article, thank you.
Meh no harm no foul
So what if they did? That’s their right.
Or his defense got better within the last 2 weeks?
Seriously though, everybody knew he was going to get sent down for service time reasons before the season even started. He just signed a massive extension (for a player like him). I guarantee you he doesn’t give a crap about service time manipulation anymore. Time to move on.
Reactionary?
Because of Tatis? No, this was inevitable after the extension he signed.
Can’t wait to watch him in the show. Good luck Eloy!
and to think the cubs traded this guy for jose quintana who’s a number 3 at best
Don’t count your chickens…he could turn out like Moncada.
Take your own advice, counting Moncada too early.
Moncada is WAYYYY over-hyped
This
Or Matt LaPorta…or Joe Borchard…or Ian Stewart…or Dominic Brown…or Bill Rowell…or Lastings Milledge…shall I go on? He’s done less at the MLB right now than any/all of them.
Matt LaPorta… a sure fire hall of famer
Lastings Milledge. Hirrarious
I haven’t heard a Borchard reference in since I was in high school. Wowsers.
I recall when a straight up Manny Ramirez for Lashings was rejected by the Mets.
He’ll always have that titanic blast, which I believe is still a record at the Cell/Rate.
Yes, because Moncada is even close to a finished product. Great call.
Finished or not, his value is a good amount lower now than it was at the time of acquisition – it’s not a perfect example, but it does make the point.
A starting OF vs a 5th pitcher in a rotation? And Cease will come up later.
Quintana is the Cubs #5.
Exactly, but he would be a #3 on a non contending team, he’d EASILY be the #1 on the W Sox.
Like Kaplan said, Cubs paid for an ace, but got a Buick. Lmaooooo
Wait, is an ace a type of car? Hmmm, troll better. Please! At least try to be clever. BTW, Quintana has FINALLY been to two straight playoffs and likely more to come. I’m very happy him and his tiny contract is on the Cubs.
Also, you were the same clown planning a parade about Moncada and Giolito before either proved themselves in the majors. How’s that working out? Has Eloy taken a MLB AB yet? Exactly.
There’s a reason they’re called “prospects” or in the Sux case… “busts”.
Apparently Theo & Co. thought “Q” was a #1 considering what they gave up to acquire him. When all is said and done, the White Sox return of Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease might best the deal the Red Sox gave them for a true ace pitcher in Chris Sale.
Btw-I still maintain that Michael Kopech and Yoan Moncada will be hugely impacting players for the White Sox with Luis Alexander Basabe also having a decent chance as solid 4th outfielder. I truly believe that the Sale and Quintana deals will net the White Sox a pair of legit TOR pitchers in Kopech and Cease, a generational hitter and MVP candidate in Jimenez along with an All-Star 3B in Moncada.
Gabe Kaplan?
Q’s more like a Pontiac.
What a bitter little Cub fan.
@ Bryzz–please give it a break on Moncada—you are obviously a Cub fan and with that you should be well aware of the 1400-1600 plate appearances Theo preaches about before making real evaluations. Moncada is nowhere near that (nor is Schwarber, Happ, Almora). Moncada has talent–and he still has some time to develop it before getting a “bust” tag.
And don’t jump on Eloy if he starts 2 for 19 and I hope the Sox fans won’t enshrine him it he starts off 9 for 19.
I like Eloy, he probably will struggle at first just like he did this spring. Doesn’t mean he’s a bust. I think a good floor comp would be Jorge Soler, ceiling? Who knows. It was a good trade for Theo, Q is exactly what the Cubs needed. They have young positional depth under team control, they did not have young, team controlled pitching (other than Hendricks) The Cubs don’t make the playoffs the last two years without Q and he’ll be key the next couple years as well. If Eloy turns out to be legit, then it’s a perfect scenario as a win win for both teams. If he ends up a bust, so be it. It happens. Two teams in completely different situations. One team is a legit contender in the middle of their window, the other is attempting a rebuild.
Not hard to compute this. Q has much more value to the Cubs, Eloy has/had much more value to the W Sox. Also, this was also addition by subtraction. Many forget that the Brewers were in heavy on Q. So not only did the Cubs need him, they also kept him from the Brewers.
Plus Dylan Cease!
Who’s he? Oh right the minor league pitcher of the year. MAN, Rick Hahn sure did fleece Theo and the Cubs!
Sort of like Theo fleecing all those teams and getting Rizzo for Cashner, Arrieta and Strop for Feldman, Russell for Samardzija, Hendricks for Dempster, Fowler for Valbuena. For every Hahn trade there are five others that helped net a World Series win. You win some, you lose some. Trades sometimes, yet rarely, work out for both teams.
Except those guys actually helped the Cubs win a ring. So far, NONE of the prospects the Sox acquired have done anything at the big league level.
Holy balls
News to literally nobody except the dummies who just come here during spring training lol.
Yeah, you got it all figured out.
Welcome Eloy!
Dude’s gonna have some growing pains but hopefully he’s as good as advertised. GO GET’EM, ELOY!
Scouts from every organization grade this guy as can’t miss. Injuries have been an issue for him so far. Might be tough to get a whole year out of him. Should be fun to watch.
Eloy Jimenez is the real deal when it comes to his hitting and power tools. Hopefully he will not resemble Jorge Soler with his health.
And as long as Luis Robert doesn’t become the next Dayan Viciedo.
I don’t see a great comp between Luis Robert and Dayan Viciedo other than the Cuban heritage and the fact both are outfielders with decent arms (Viciedo actually was signed as a third baseman before moving to the OF).
Viciedo never possessed the raw athleticism of Robert nor had the ability to patrol CF. If Robert approaches his ceiling it could be as a prolific leadoff hitter with 30+ SB potential OR as an elite 5-tool power hitter in the middle of the batting order.
As great as Eloy Jimenez might be as a generational hitting talent, Robert has even more upside with his all-around baseball ability. Both need to have better track records with their health as professionals in order to begin reaching their lofty ceilings.
At a cost of $52M there is certainly no comp between Robert and Viciedo.
He’s a former Cub signed by Theo and Theo knows hitter’s when he sees em! I have no doubt Elroy will do well. Q is what they thought he was & Cubs are overloaded with OF ‘s anyway, so it still stands as a good trade.
Quintana is a better pitcher than what hes shown for the Cubs. But they gave up too much talent to acquire him. Cease and Jimenez could bring back a bonafide ace today, not a solid number 3.
Quintana is the cubs #5 😉
But that’s speaks to the strength of the Cubs rotation, not Q’s talent level.
Ya. Is that supposed to be some kind of backhanded compliment? Or just a terrible insult?
Joe, he’s a troll. Don’t give him pleasure in acknowledging his existence.
That rotation has HUGE question marks
Over the Hill Lester, Hu the mental weakling., Cole over the hill Hamels. One scary rotation, not. But hey you still have Chatwalk.
Hopefully he can fill in for Jay until he’s healed. Once Jay is healthy, there will be plenty of AAA time available for Elroy to work on his defense.
Not going to happen.
And my fantasy team celebrates
I don’t know how this will impact the morale of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. It’s not too late for the Blue Jays to step up, but we will see…
Vlad is injured, so they get to manipulate freely and benefit from the extra year. No contract coming his way either– Rogers media doesn’t do that sorta thing.
And so it begins.
So what begins? Prospects being called up? Happens all the time…
No, this one is quite hyped, and he already has his extension, something your Cubs could learn to do. Wouldn’t shock me if Bryant, Boras client hits FA. By the way, how goes your team’s minor league system?
The* Cubs have learned to do that. Rizzo, Hendricks etc. wouldn’t shock me if Bryant hit free agency either. Boras client or not. And what does their minor league system have to do with my comment? Man you’re all over the place.
Great response, which is shocking, came from you. Hopefully it leads to less trolling me, and more baseball comments. Once again, thanks.
Minor league system is the basis of the whole comment. Different prospects, different hype.
Right now, Cubs’ prospect cup board is bare. (Mostly for the right reasons, I.E. graduation, and their prospects, living up to expectations) Once again, thanks for the intelligent baseball comment, hope it leads to less trolling from u.
Man I don’t troll you. I was just stating my opinion. Yes the system is shallow because of the Chapman and Q trades. No need for the shocking statement. Talk baseball like this with everyone and you won’t have people freaking out on you. I don’t troll. I’m just here for intelligent baseball convo.
Obviously x doesn’t know the Cubs’ farm!
Go ahead and scour the many rankings and projections but you have to actually watch a player play to arrive at a fair assessment. The Cubs have many good position prospects and even more pitching. I have the advantage of living in AZ and can watch ExST, Minors, & Fall League. Their system is in an upward cycle and will have plenty of top 100 in a year.
Wait until the mid-season ranks come out and watch how big a jump the Cubs take.
Over/under 3 months before this one gets banned too?
Who?
Oh, my bad, Ryan. I’ll take the over. Even tho this isn’t who you think it is. Way to go tho. Keep it up, bud.
Puerile
At least X is now respectable after taking criticism. You’ve just hidden in the shadows for a year and are back to your same old pathetic ways lol.
“Respectable after taking criticism” have you looked in a mirror? Why do you think you got banned?
Although FWIW there are at least a dozen others who I would have rather seen banned than you.
Doesn’t even mention how well he played when the sox called him back up.
No brainer
There is zero correlation to Eloy Jimenez making the opening day roster and the injury to Jon Jay. The moment Jimenez signed that contract extension he was guaranteed the LF position in 2019. The White Sox gave him his MLB locker back and he started every ST game after he put pen to paper.
The Jay injury gave Ryan Cordell a second chance after he had been optioned out earlier. Jay was going to be a semi-regular player for the White Sox in CF and/or RF along with being their primary leadoff hitter versus right-handed pitching. Cordell, like Jay is capable of playing all 3 outfield positions including CF. Unlike Jay, he will primarily be used off the bench. My best guess is that Leury Garcia will now get most of the leadoff AB’s until Jay returns. Adam Engel will remain the White Sox primary CF and hit 9th whenever he starts.
I read that the ChiSox planned to move Yoan Moncada to 3B… Anyone else read that?
He has played there all spring…
Madrigal will play second. So they just flipped yoan and yolmer now to get a jump on it.
Free(d) Eloy!!!
Now just put Mendick at 2B and see if he can continue his hot spring start, moving Yolmer to his future role as the team’s utility man. Then they’re only an outfielder or two away from having a potentially decent lineup.
Lets see how Danny Mendick does with regular PA’s at AAA and what his glove looks like at 2B alongside veteran SS Alcides Escobar before promoting him to the South Side. Mendick could use regular reps at 2B since he was primarily a SS during his minor league career.
We also know that Yolmer Sanchez possesses Gold Glove quality defense at 2B. I’d just assume he remain Tim Anderson’s double play partner on the South Side and keeps the position warm until Nick Madrigal makes his MLB debut later this season or more likely next year. Anderson made great strides with his defense at SS in the second half of last year with Yoan Moncada at 2B. He should continue that with Sanchez at 2B and with another potentially elite defender in Madrigal for years to come.
Mendick had a nice spring with the bat while being utilized at 2B, SS and 3B. When Madrigal debuts, Mendick could join Sanchez as a second versatile utility infielder which would be a better possibility with rosters expanding to 26 in 2020. I also like what Jose Rondon brings to the table as a utility infielder and he will have a chance to solidify his standing with a good 2019 season. Mendick will provide insurance for Sanchez at 2B in AAA and perhaps for Moncada at 3B as well. He will also provide versatile depth in the event Rondon fails to produce or gets hurt with the White Sox.
Wouldn’t it be just hilarious if he costs the Sox a win on opening day with a bunch of defensive mistakes?
That actually would be kind of funny
I’m expecting a .290/.360/.550, 30HR/85 RBI season out of Eloy this year. Gonna be close, but I think starting the season in the bigs gives him an edge over Guerrero for ROY.
Now he’s gonna have an ops in the 650 range given how right you normally are…
Information is the enemy of all delusional cubs fans. OPS = OBP + SLG
BTW, enjoy Quintana this year. I’m sure his 4.03 ERA was just an aberration last season. nyuck-nyuck
Yes, I’m well.aware od what OPS is. I even know what OPS+ is.
And I didn’t have to look up either before responding.
Enjoy this year, when pretty much the entire White Sox staff can’t managed better than 4.03 without landing on the DL.