April 26: Jimenez underwent surgery to “repair a torn hamstring tendon behind his right knee,” the White Sox announced. It’s a similar injury to the one incurred by Lynn earlier this year. Jimenez’s estimated timeline remains unchanged; he’s still expected to miss six to eight weeks.
April 24: The White Sox released a statement today in regards to outfielder Eloy Jimenez, who left yesterday’s game with an injury. Jimenez has a right hamstring strain and will be heading to the injured list. While further updates are coming, the statement says that he is expected to miss 6-8 weeks. (Statement relayed by James Fegan of The Athletic.) The club later announced that Jimenez has been placed on the 10-day IL, with Lucas Giolito being reinstated and starting today’s game.
This is yet another blow to a White Sox team that has been pummeled by injuries in the first few weeks of the 2022 season. Lance Lynn, Garrett Crochet, Yoan Moncada and a handful of other players are already on the shelf, with Jimenez now set to join them. Giolito had been a part of that group as well, though the bit of good news is that he has now returned and rejoined the rotation.
The absence of Jimenez will put a dent in the club’s lineup for a second straight season. Last year, a ruptured left pectoral tendon kept him out of action beyond the halfway point of the season. He eventually returned to play 55 games down the stretch, but he only hit at around a league average level with a line of .249/.303/.437, 101 wRC+. That was certainly a few notches below his 2019-2020 output of .276/.321/.527, 122 wRC+, though perhaps understandable given the long layoff.
This year, he was off to a slow start, hitting .222/.256/.333, 74 wRC+. That’s a tiny sample of just 11 games and he surely would have improved it as time went on, but he will now have to sit on the injured list for around two months, give or take, depending on what further testing reveals. Once healthy, he will have to ramp back up and get back into game shape, just like last year.
The White Sox will now have an awkward situation on their hands for their outfield picture, as center fielder Luis Robert has also been dealing with an injury. Although he hasn’t been placed on the injured list, Robert’s groin injury has kept him out of the lineup for the past two games. AJ Pollock was just activated from the injured list on Friday after missing time with a strained hamstring. Pollock is starting in right field today, with Andrew Vaughan in left and Adam Haseley in center. Gavin Sheets and Adam Engel will likely be in the mix for some outfield time as well, with Robert eventually getting folded back in as he heals.
RIP. They gotta open the DH spot for him full-time to try and preserve his health.
DH guys still run the bases.
True, but maybe the sox can get creative and have Jimenez ride a scooter when running the bases.
Designated runner who can pinch run with no limits as many times as necessary. Call it the Shadow runner. The Locastro’s and Wade’s deserve careers too
Meh, scooter sounds better. Actually, a wheelchair would be best. Then shortly after a wheelchair baseball league could start up. Just think how epic those benches clearing brawls would be.
Give Manfart another year or two & we’ll have digital runners.
Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio, a lonely nation turns it’s eyes to you….
facebook.com/1320Videos/photos/baller-golf-cart-/1…
Way to go JR. The percentage of first poster trolls is higher than the the percentage of guilty people in prison.
Congratulation on being the first idiot on this thread.
Sounds like Halo is dealing with a wrongful conviction. I didn’t know they allowed cell phones in prison.
That’s what it “sounds” like?
The only “sounds’ coming out of my posts are the ones you make with your moving lips while you read.
The White Sox dodged a bullet pending their final diagnosis. Andrew Vaughn should get regular PA’s in LF while Eloy should strictly DH upon his return.
You would think, but LaRussa doesn’t seem to want to play the man consistently.
There is no doubt that Jimenez is extremely unlucky at times, but Jimenez rips his pec muscle last year going after a meaningless spring training homer a mile above his head.. Then this year Jimenez gets hurt because he hits the bag wrong… How much of this is injury proneness and how much is this guy does not know how to play the game well and damages himself?
Remember when people were screaming service time manipulation when Hahn said Jimenez was not ready, maybe he wasn’t, just saying…..
In any case its a good thing that Vaughn is around and is as talented as he is.. well not when he’s getting hit in the hands batting…
This whole team is never going to win a World Series or possibly a playoff series as constructed. Rick hahn has his balls cut off when Larussa was hired. Now that bum Jerry reinsdorf is content on the organization just be division champs. Moncada’s a bust, eloy is made of glass, grandal is a defensive liability, and the team lacks a true ace(Lynn is a 2 giolito is a 3). We have 1 good outfielder and his name is Robert. Unfortunately he cannot stay healthy either. Welcome to being a Chicago sports fan. What a ball club.
Nope
Gio ain’t a 3. They have basically 4 2’s. Lynn Gio, Cease and Kopech. But once again this supposedly vaunted bullpen has been absolute garbage. Name a better love story than giving up a 9th inning HR and Liam Hendriks. Ok, Maybe Aaron Bummer and walking the 1st guy he faces.
Or Robert and Eloy and the IL
Gio is a 3, and that’s being nice.. I mean what makes people think he is a ‘2’ or a ‘1’? The no hitter? Phil Humber has a perfect game and I think he is bagging groceries now.
The bullpen in’t horrible, but the main pain points are the ones that really matter: ‘Heart attack’ Hendriks and Bummer, making everyone feel bummed out.. He has never been the same after the injury a few years ago and its a shame.
Moncada a bust? a simple look through his stats the last three years end your argument. Clown alert.
Maybe bust could be considered a harsh word here. However Moncada is not hitting anywhere near what he was expected to, and whenever starts to look like he does, he gets hurt shortly thereafter. Not sure who should shoulder more of the blame, Moncada, or the conditioning staff. I’d say Moncada, but then he would probably go on the DL with a sore shoulder.
Well, I agree that this team as currently constructed is not a World Series contending team at all but you lose all kinds of credibility with your reasoning.
First, Grandal is not a poor defender in the least. He isn’t off to a great start this year but his track record speaks for it’s self.
I wouldn’t label Moncada a “bust” although he has not lived up to his billing as the top prospect in baseball several years ago.
The problem with the White Sox is that they are thin, their pitching is thin, they do not have a farm system capable of bringing in reinforcements nor are they in a position to make an impactful trade unless they pull from a thin ML roster (like they had to last year).
I give credit to Hann, he attempted to build a very solid bullpen knowing that his starting pitching isn’t going to go very deep into games but relief pitching is fickle and they really don’t have anyone who can provide long relief (although Banks has been good). So when rosters shrink, the Sox are going to be in serious trouble given how they are using their relievers.
The bullpen was not built well. Not when Heart Attack Hendriks and Bummer are pitching so poorly (and Bummer pitching this way, and Hendriks being the way he is with blowing saves is nothing new) Hahn went ‘all in’ using bargain basement prices and this is what you get. A bunch of underachievers (except when they are hyping themselves up), a manager too busy sleeping in the dugout(and only wakes up for his check), a first baseman who cannot hit for half the season, a godawful fielding team, the same 3 or 4 guys that sit on the DL more than in the lineup and a bunch of above average starters in the rotation but no one you can really depend on to win a ball game. By the way, none of this is a new thing, its been going on for the last 2 seasons.
Leury Garcia to the rescue. TWTW
Jimenez seems to be on the snake bit side…
Yeah, this sucks for Chicago. If they’re going to be in the playoffs, which is very likely even with the injuries, they need guys like Jiminez in the lineup because you can’t replace that bat.
Got to be tough to endure this again, but at least Vaughn is up & getting some good reps in. He hit an absolute bomb over CF fence two days ago too.
Eloy should star in the 3rd movie of the Unbreakable/Glass trilogy. Guy can’t stay healthy to save his life.
This guy is clearly a walking injury, he will be forever always hurt. Such talent but can’t keep himself healthy.
Same could be said of Byron Buxton. He stayed healthy enough to whoop on the Sox today!
Need a LF? Dbacks trade David Peralta to White Sox for Jake Burger.
Sox fans, what do you say?
Dbacks fans probably prefer an actual cheeseburger.
They’d have beer and burger on the roster, as well as the menu
6y/43m looking pretty smart for Eloy. Dude is made out of glass
6-8 weeks is what they said for Madrigal last year.
Seems to be a lot of articles coming out of Chicago with the look at all our injuries line. Every team is dealing with injuries. White Sox aren’t any worse than others. As to Eloy “surely” improving on his current numbers, pure speculation . Its an unknown. Will the pitchers catch up with him, and will he adjust are unknowns at this juncture.
Seems like pitchers have already caught up with Eloy. Plus Eloy doesn’t seem to have the longest attention span. Maybe that could be why they don’t have him as DH very often.
Every team might be dealing with injuries (as is always the case in almost any sport; especially baseball) but the White Sox are getting to the point where I’m beginning to wonder if they have any contact/plans with the players to make sure they stay in shape during the offseason.
All I know is this is getting ridiculous; especially when we have a GM who doesn’t prioritize depth. Ugh… I hope we’re the 2021 Atlanta Braves at the end of this journey.
You might recall there was an owner lockout during this past offseason. Teams where prohibited from making “contact/plans” with players on their 40-man MLB roster. The White Sox had also made one significant change to their coaching staff/dugout team following the 2021 season. It happened to be Allen Thomas, the team’s head of strength and conditioning, on the heels of all their injury woes including numerous hamstring issues. With the lockout in place, the newly hired guy/staff had very little opportunity to work with an map out individual health strategies with the White Sox MLB roster during the offseason.
Chicago is gonna regret giving out all those extensions, this is a flawed team besides the injuries
Don’t fall into the trap of blaming White Sox woes on injury. Their starting pitching has been uneven at best, their vaunted line-up can’t hit for average or power, their vaunted bullpen—especially the back end—has been terrible, and their defense has played to its reputation as one of the worst in the league. If you can’t hit, pitch, or defend, the losses will mount up quickly, including now perhaps seven in a row.
What, you don’t have faith in ‘heart attack’ Hendriks?
This club has no heart, The org also went bargain basement hunting for RF, 2nd, and rotation and it shows.. The Sox also have a SS who apparently has forgotten how to field, a 3rd baseman that found an easier way to collect his check, a first baseman who forgot how to hit, and a manager too busy sleeping to care what this team is. So much for ‘winning it all’… Right now I see nothing but a bunch of guys that only show up to collect their checks.
Next man up….teams don’t win divisions or world series based on their April line ups or rotations. There is always a bench or minor leaguer who steps up or a transaction or two that get the teams righted during the season or stretch run. With Eloy out it is more than fair to say that Vaughn will replace his hitting and is still a better fielder than Eloy.
Try telling this to a Mets fan.
The Sox lack heart, and a manager that has blood pumping through his. No amount of next man up fixes this. Its been an issue for the past two seasons as well. You have a bunch of guys buying their hype without actually doing anything to earn it.
They can only hope that when Eloy comes back he starts to hit like the beast that he was a couple years ago before the torn pec. Then trade him. He isn’t likely to stay healthy and just is not a good fit for this team. Hopefully he has good trade value, I wouldn’t give him away but they need a league average or better 2b more than they need another oft injured outfielder.
Yolbert Sanchez could be the White Sox starting 2B sooner rather than later. When he was signed out of Cuba a few years ago Sanchez already had the tag of being a MLB ready defensive SS/2B with a suspect hit tool. He has done nothing but rake at every level including contact skills that approach Nick Madrigal levels with more walks and a little more power: baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=san…
Sanchez was just promoted to AAA Charlotte following Sunday’s game and figures to be in Chicago soon. While 2B has been his primary position as a pro, Sanchez has also seen time at SS and even more at 3B this season with Yoan Moncada hurt and Jake Burger struggling.
At the very least, Sanchez will fill the role of a versatile MLB reserve infielder with his defensive acumen. If he continues to hit, he will likely become the White Sox answer at 2B and perhaps even SS if Tim Anderson continues to regress defensively at the position.
It would be great if Yolbert worked out. Yet prove how utterly dumb they were to sign Leury and Harrison for 5M each – Leury to 3 years no less. Middle infield/utility is one of the only areas they have players in the minors with potential. I’ll take an unproductive rookie learning on the job over wasting 10M on two guys who have no upside to begin with. Harrison was totally awful with the A’s last year and is continuing that, I will be surprised if he is even on the roster by year end. Constantly getting guys at the tail end of their careers… Encarnacion, Gio Gonzalez, Eaton, now Harrison. No team wastes more money on garbage players than they do.
Its what happens when the org is too busying looking at the back of baseball cards to see stats of players from 5 years ago to make their decisions now.. I dunno whats worse, this team or the excuses made for them. At least yesterday’s debacle with pitching to Buxton actually frustrated all in the post game show.
Also
Whats more inexcusable?
-Making 3 errors in a game
-Allow said player to keep going out there?
:Lack of accountability shows on this club, it shows so bad that you have Moncada with his ‘injury’ and other guys I think taking notice and notes…
There are soo many issues with this club (on and off of the field), Im not sure that can be fixed in one season. This team needs a heart transplant.. The problem is most of the time those players that can help with this cost a large amount of money, which tightwad JR refuses to part with.
The silver lining is the FO didn’t listen to the fans who were clamoring for CWS to sign Conforto.
I sat next to Eloy’s family at a game back in 2019. They were very nice. They were very big. They were pear shaped, and they were not athletic whatsoever. In my humble opinion, his injury history is directly related to his size, lack of agility, and lack of athleticism. This guy should be no where near a warning track, a protective screen in foul territory or anywhere close to causing one more collision with the White Sox’s franchise centerfielder, Luis Robert. He needs to get in better shape and be the DH. But, that might be asking too much if his body.
He looks pretty fatty so he had this coming.
As painful as it’s been to watch them get swept by two bottom feeders, the Sox will be fine and still run away with the division. How they do in the playoffs might be a different story. We’ll know in July how this team will fare, hopefully avoiding more injuries in the meantime.
Every team gets hit with injuries, the Sox just got hit with the injury bug bad this month. It happens, no big deal, as long as everyone is back within the next couple months.
The only positive with the OF injuries is there’s no way Vaughn gets traded now, especially since he’s been their best hitter so far (which isn’t saying a lot). It’s been said the best trades are the ones that weren’t made, and it definitely looks the case with Vaughn.
July needs to hurry up and get here. It’s hard to stomach watching these games right now, getting owned by some of the worst teams in baseball.
I have seen them do nothing for far that says the Sox will run away with the division. I think the Guardians are there as long as their pitching staff can dominate and baffle the incompetent Sox hitters (how they can be so bad against a division rival is really what should be baffling here).Again everyone could be back, but it does not solve the Sox heart problem (being they have no heart). They have no will to impose themselves on opponents, they cannot drive runs in at all and Moncada will likely be hurt all or for at least half the season with his ‘ailments’ and an inept coaching staff who cannot keep the same three guys from getting nagging silly injuries (Eloys weird base running aside, Moncada should not be getting these soft tissue injuries unless he refuses to take part on conditioning in which case ’86’ him. He is no good if he is not out there in the field…
Correct – there is no substitute for availability. That really needs to be a sabremetric stat if it isn’t already (MLBPA would hate it). Availability Index should be front and center, and nobody is blaming a player for getting injured, but it has to be a significant factor.
Ten weeks more realistic. Don’t rush it.
Time for some voodoo, a la Pedro Cerrano.
“Hats for bats.”
Keep Tony away from Jobu’s rum
After his return in 8-10 weeks, I expect Jimenez to sustain another injury that will require him to miss a not insignificant amount of time.
I predict he’ll do ya one better – he’ll sustain a completely different injury on rehab assignment before he even sets foot on a major league field.
Thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery.
Such a bummer that it’s April and it’s already clear that we’ll never see this year’s White Sox team perform to its true potential.
That guy is a slacker. He had it coming.
Calm down, guys. The Sox couldn’t possibly play any worse than they have the last week and a half, yet they are 6-10, 2 and 1/2 GB with 90% of the season still to go in easily the worst division in baseball.
But I shouldn’t be the fool who sees the glass half-full. That goes against the script. We should all come back on this message board at the trade deadline when the Sox have left the 4 AAAA teams in their dust and re-live this needless early season panic for a good laugh.
There it is, there it is.. The ‘its early yet’ excuse has come out.. was wondering when someone would drag that one out… Listen if the Sox keep playing like they did against their division rivals so far, then I think there will be no waving bye to the ‘AAAA’ teams but the question of how the Sox are in third place against those ‘AAAA teams’.
Keep thinking its sunny out, but the rest of us have watched this club over the past few seasons… Moncada will be lucky if he is healthy enough for even 80 games, same with Robert, and unless the Sox fire their entire conditioning staff and force these players into a conditioning program that works, I see no change to that prognostication. Eloy is not injury prone.. well I mean he CONSTANTLY puts himself into situations to get injured.. not sure if that is the same thing (Im thinking it is) and when you have 1/3 of your ‘vaunted’ lineup out of commission for half the season, nothing good is coming from that.
I guess the Sox (and fans like you) must be praying to every entity out there for Buxton, Plesac, Bieber, and Correa to get hurt so the Sox have a chance still (to be fair, it could happen at least with three of those four). The Sox, when during the rare times they have been at full strength have not shown any heart though, no win to win among any of them.. I thought Robert did, same with Anderson, but if Robert is going to pull a muscle every week he is out there to miss another week (at least) then he does you no good. Anderson.. well I dunno what happened to his glove, even if that is just a hiccup, that is not something you want to see from your ‘premium’ talent. and Abreu has lost his bat for the first half of the season again (apparently). Vaughn is the lone bright spot so far. Hopefully Hahn does not give away the store for another washed up pitcher either at the trade deadline.
I hope you are right, but watching this club over 30 years tells me my guess is more likely to be correct than yours.
Let’s see what the team looks like a month from now. If they are still this bad, I will take back everything I said and completely agree with your assessment.
I’m thinking at some point soon Abreu, Grandal…basically everyone not named Vaughn will break out of their season-long slump. And I can’t see Hendriks (and the rest of the bullpen not named Graveman) pitching this badly all season. If I’m wrong on both these points, then you’re absolutely right.
As much as the injuries have been killing them all season, they have enough healthy talent to not play this bad all season. In fact, even if Eloy, Robert, Moncada, and Lynn were all done for the year, they should still have enough talent to win that weak division.
I’m fine with the rotation of Pollack, Engel, Vaughn and Sheets and even more so when Robert gets back. This gives me 8+ weeks of not having to say “oh no” when someone hits the ball to LF.
No doubt it’s been rough the past couple weeks. However, I still remain optimistic that things will turn around. Too much talent on this team to continue on like they’ve been.