The White Sox on Friday announced that they’ve placed Eloy Jimenez on the 10-day injured list with an adductor strain, selected the contract of veteran outfielder Robbie Grossman, and designated right-hander Alex Speas for assignment in order to open a roster spot for Grossman. Jimenez’s IL placement is retroactive to April 2.
Sox GM Chris Getz suggested earlier this week that Grossman, 34, could soon be added to the big league roster. The veteran switch-hitter spent the 2023 season with the World Series champion Rangers and batted .238/.340/.394. He’s been an average or better hitter in six of the past eight seasons, collecting 3552 plate appearances and delivering a combined .245/.350/.387 batting line. Grossman is a career .282/.381/.426 slash against left-handed pitching (126 wRC+). He’s been below-average, albeit not egregiously so, against right-handed pitching.
Grossman has played a bit of center field in his career, but the vast majority of that experience came back in 2013. He’s primarily a corner outfielder and designated hitter, with the bulk of his outfield work coming in left field. He played 553 innings on the grass for Texas last season but turned in well below-average defensive marks. He can offer the Sox a veteran bat to step in for the injured Jimenez at designated hitter and could also spell left-handed-hitting corner outfielders Andrew Benintendi and Dominic Fletcher against left-handed starting pitchers on occasion.
Speas, 26, joined the White Sox via waiver claim last October. The flamethrowing righty sits 99-100 mph with his heater and can climb higher than that. As one would expect, that’s led to some prodigious strikeout totals in the minors, but Speas struggles to command his power arsenal and has alarming walk rates in the upper minors. He pitched two big league innings for the Rangers last year but split the bulk of the season between Double-A and Triple-A. Speas fanned a ridiculous 41% of his Double-A opponents and nearly 35% of his Triple-A opponents, but he also walked a combined 15.5% of his opponents.
Speas was with the Sox during spring training and walked six of his 26 opponents. He’s begun the season in Triple-A Charlotte, where he was tagged for four runs in two innings as he walked another two of the 11 batters he’s faced there. The 2016 second-round pick has electric stuff but has walked more than 18% of the opponents he’s faced in pro ball. The White Sox will have a week to trade Speas, attempt to pass him through outright waivers or release him.
Jimenez exited the White Sox’ game back on Sunday due to soreness in his adductor muscle and hasn’t played in a game since. He’s out to a 2-for-11 start on the season, with both hits being singles. The 27-year-old slugger has shown at times that he has the upside to be one of the game’s most dangerous hitters. Jimenez belted 31 homers as a rookie in 2019 and as recently as 2021, he slashed .295/.358/.500 with 16 homers in just 84 games.
Injuries have been far too frequent for the Dominican-born slugger, however. He’s been on the injured list due to ankle, elbow/forearm, and hamstring injuries (twice), in addition to the current adductor strain and a 2023 appendectomy that kept him out for about three weeks. Jimenez has never topped the 122 games he played as a rookie, and that 2019 season is the only one of his career in which he’s reached 500 big league plate appearances.
The first of 4 IL placements for Jimenez
I take the over.
The biggest surprise is he lasted 4 games into the season before hitting the IL
Yep
As long as Robbie can successfully run to first without issue.
Yeah your right.
Gross
We got Luis Robert. We got Garrett Crochet. Colson Montgomery and Edgar Quero are on the way. Noah Schulz, Drew Thorpe, Nick Nastrini, Jairo Iriarte and Jake Eder are a solid set of arms in the minors.
This is what we have to build from.
That prospect list isn’t awful, it’s better than nothing. Some people are just overreacting to the White Sox current situation.
Bryan Ramos and Sammy Zavala are a couple of position players who are also more than solid. Need to cash in on the draft with a high pick for a close to ready college pitcher like we did with Crochet.
I rather see them take the best 2B available in the draft. They needed 2B for how long? Same with RF, though Fletcher solves half of it.
Take the best player available. Always.
That’s what I’m trying to say.
The entire AL is quaking in fear at those names…..
They’ve been within 1 run in 6 of the 7 games late, so there’s that. Baby steps
You’re not wrong. They are dead last in virtually every offensive stat though. They really only had 2 blowout losses.
And now Luis Bob looks out for some time. Not good.
I wonder if anyone’s looked at Eloy’s off season conditioning program…
Off season doesn’t matter. He gets hurt in season, deer season, rabbit season, duck season, winter season…..
Grossman is a perfect addition to the White Sox, a roster filled with AAAA players, led by a AAA Front Office and a bush-league owner.
lol.
Another soft tissue injury for Eloy. What a disappointment this guy has been. Huge power potential but can’t hit homers from the trainer’s table.
Biggest bust in white Sox history tbh.
Overreaching? Thought Carlos Quentin was the biggest bust when he busted up his hand. At least Eloy performs when healthy. Whats Andrew Vaughns excuse?
AV is more consistent than Eloy. Sheets has been pretty good so far. Thx god we don’t need to see him at RF.
AV, 5 for 20, no XBH. Wish they had traded him when he still had value, maybe even had resigned Jose to a team friendly deal to serve as a caddy for an eventual successor.
hate to say it but looking forward to more roster turnover sooner than later
Mr. Glass.
Here we go again, finding players in the garbage cans. LOL Anything to save money for jerry.