7:05pm: On the broadcast of tonight’s game, general manager Chris Getz said Jiménez would miss a month or so, as relayed by Scott Merkin of MLB.com on X.
5:40pm: White Sox manager Pedro Grifol spoke with members of the media today, with Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times relaying video on X. Grifol relayed the latest on slugger Eloy Jiménez, which wasn’t great news. “He beat it up pretty good,” Grifol said of Jiménez’s left hamstring. “Exactly how much time, I mean, who knows? But it will be an extended period of time.”
Jiménez, 27, landed on the injured list yesterday due to a left hamstring strain, the latest in what has become a mounting injury track record. Although this is his sixth season in the big leagues, he has never played more than 122 games in a season. He’s only reached 85 games twice and has only gone beyond 55 games three times. He has gone on the injured list due to a high right ankle sprain, a right ulnar nerve contusion, a left adductor strain, a ruptured left pectoral tendon, an appendectomy, a torn hamstring tendon and multiple left hamstring strains.
When healthy enough to take the field, he has shown himself to possess a potent bat. He has 94 home runs in just under 2,000 plate appearances in his career and has slashed .271/.321/.479 for a wRC+ of 116. But the missed time due to injuries has often prevented him from providing that kind of offense to the Sox on a consistent basis.
Before even making his major league debut, the Sox signed Jiménez to a six-year, $43MM extension for the 2019-24 seasons. That deal also has two options for 2025 and 2026, respectively valued at $16.5MM and $18.5MM, each with a $3MM buyout.
The Sox were rebuilding at the time of that deal and hoped to be opening a new competitive window. They ended up making the postseason in 2020 and 2021, remarkably the first time the franchise made the playoffs in consecutive years, but the window slammed shut after that. The Sox fell to .500 in 2022 and then slid even farther last year, kicking off yet another rebuild.
The club was undoubtedly hoping for a strong season here in 2024 so they could trade him this summer, now that he’s in the final guaranteed season of his contract, but an extended absence will make that even less likely.
As of January, the club was reportedly finding little trade interest in Jiménez, surely on account of his increasing health issues and his diminished performance more recently. He hit .276/.327/.504 from 2019 to 2022 but has hit just .263/.310/.427 since the start of 2023, the latter line translating to a wRC+ of 102. Since Jiménez doesn’t really steal bases nor play the field well, he really needs to hit, especially with his contract.
The timeline on Jiménez is still vague, but with the trade deadline now just over two months away, the Sox may be squeezed out of finding a trade partner. Even if Jiménez is back and healthy a few weeks before the deadline, his ongoing injury problems will tamp down the interest from other clubs.
For the same reasons that the trade interest may be muted, it’s possible that the clock is ticking on his tenure with the White Sox. In the most recent offseason, bat-first players like Justin Turner, Joc Pederson and J.D. Martinez signed one-year deals for less than the value of Jiménez’s 2025 option. Even Teoscar Hernández, whose career offense is roughly comparable to that of Jiménez but with more speed and defensive ability, had to settle for one-year and $23.5MM with a decent chunk deferred.
That may have the Sox leaning towards turning down their 2025 option, since it would appear to be above market value for a defensively-limited slugger, especially one with the recent track record that Jiménez has. That will be a decision for the future. For now, he and the club will be focused on getting him healthy to see how things go in the latter parts of the season.
He wishes he could get to a Buxton level of durability
I would love to see Buxtons injury list. He would make first ballott DL hall of fame !
Buxton missed ~51% of his 8 full seasons of play. Eloy is currently at 41% and trending in the wrong direction with this IL stint. At this rate he should catch Buxton’s IL time within two seasons.
I’m sure there’s a site that tracks it more elegantly, but here’s one way to see them all. He has to be up there for most injured player of all time.
spotrac.com/mlb/player/injuries/_/id/17603/byron-b…
Yes, it’s so hilarious to pick on athletes who get injured.
Grow up.
Maybe not. Check out some of the side effects of juicing. Weakening of the tendons that attach major muscles. Two drops a year. That’s it. Believe none are after the World Series or before spring training. The real stars of this game are not the so called muscle men. Can’t think of one HOF player I’ve seen play that someone would consider to be a bulked up juicer. However I do believe this will be broken when known juice man King Albert makes the hall first ballot. The league even did him a favor and dropped him early twice so he could go on a farewell tear. Jimenez is a part time juicer that ends up hurt due to the side effects and withdrawal. When you say he’s dropped over the winter tell me of the quality/honesty of a test administered in Santo Domingo….. So yes it’s fair to question someone that takes advantage of the rules to use substances that result in injury. Sure I have no actual proof of Jimenez juicing. I also can’t prove it will snow in Alaska again. However it’s about as obvious as it will be dark outside at 12AM that Eloy is hurt again due to his poor choices.
Put: How do you know Eloy and Albert are/were juicers? Where do you get your information on the subject? For instance, we know bonds was a big time PED user because he said he was using during a televised interview. Eloy and Albert? This is the first I’ve heard of it. not all muscular-lookingnplayers are on PEDs, but when you see a guy like McGwire, whose arms were bigger than his legs, questions do come up
I don’t really know what you are considering to be “bulked up juicers” because “bulked” is subjective. In my eyes, Sosa wasn’t close to being “bulky” but was clearly a juicer. Eloy isn’t “bulky” either.
Regardless of the Halls lame vendetta against Bonds and Clemens, arguably two of the best players to ever play the game, there are plenty of steroid users in the Hall of Fame. Piazza, Pudge, Henderson, Thomas, Martinez, Ortiz, Bagwell, simply to name a few off the top of my head.
Also, your knowledge of steroids is off. I use them semi-regularly to help recover from injury. They can cause injury in some cases where the users muscles grow so fast and they become so strong so quickly their tendons cannot keep up but most injuries are a from a lack of proper hydration/maintaining a enough fat.
Barry Bonds?
Thomas?? Don’t make stuff up
Thomas was an obvious steroid user and his pathetic attempts to distance himself made it even more obvious. You have to be in absolute denial to think he didn’t.
Of course he will. It’s what he’s always been, Injured and disappointing. One or the other.
The ridiculous thing about most of his hamstring injuries is that they occured by stepping on a base or, in one case, tripping over one. That should be Getz’ next move, lobbying Manfred to allow pillows for bases. Oh, wait. This will be Eloy’s last year with the Sox. reinsdorf will pay the $3m opt out, but no one who plays for that miser will ever get close to $16.5m a year even if they were Ohtani.
Hope he bounces back. Sell the team Mr. Reinsdorf terrible brand of baseball from top to bottom minors. Same with Chicago bulls.
Yep, Eloy injury all J.R. But I’m with you on selling team. I wish he would so team could move to another state to get away from MLB most ungrateful fans
Why are Sox fans ungrateful?
@DDsouth The White Sox have won a playoff series in one season in the past 50+years, 44 of which are under Jerry’s ownership. They are one of two teams – the A’s being the other – to never sign anybody to a 9 figure contract. Andrew bleeping Benintendi is the biggest free agent contract they have ever given out. They’ve had one full season over .500 in the past 10, lost 100 last year and are on pace to have the most losses in team history. White Sox fans are an ungrateful bunch alright, they should be happy that they have the worst owner in professional sports! Certainly in MLB.
I found reinsdorf’s burner account
You really gotta wonder just how much time(or effort)this guy(Jimenez)spends on conditioning, cardio and just staying in game shape. Eloy Jimenez just may be the most unathletic “athlete” ever.
He looks like a guy who could put down 5lb steak in one sitting and still have room for dessert
He looks like he’s in his late 30s. You know this guy doesn’t stay in shape in the offseason because of all his soft tissue injuries. How do you get injured running to first base when you barely run to begin with?
White Sox didn’t seem to take character/drive into account when handing out the extension. Just age and stats
Less time than he spends in Dunkin Donuts.
I feel like he has gotten fatter because when he was a prospect at least he could play in the outfield
You mean stand in the outfield.
Wonder why the great Gale Sayers missed 2 full years of a 7 year career with another Chicago team, oh wait it was because of injury right? I wonder if wanted Bears owner to sell, sell back then too
What is…not Jimenez?
Thanks, Cubs!
What else is new
Goodbye, Trojan Toss
3 career stolen bases and negative defensive runs saved…..
I don’t know who you’re describing but it certainly isn’t Eloy
“Like sands through the hourglass…”
Shocking news. Never would have expected this.
More like the speed of John Kruk combined with the fielding of Ryan Raburn combined with the batting prowess of Rob Deer and the hustle of a used Pinto combined with the durability of wet paper mache…
The speed of an old Edgar Martinez combined with the fielding of nick castellanos combined with the batting prowess of Austin hedges combined with the hustle of manny machado combined with the exceptional durability of Byron Buxton
In four 10 yard jaunts over 5 days.
This guy will miss his own funeral
He’ll definitely be at least 6-8 weeks late. No doubt about it
IN-EX-cusable.. I get that its not all on the conditioning staff, but how about these guys do their job or roll the bus over guys like Eloy for not doing the work?!?!
Look, Eloy has to work at keeping himself in shape, but the org has to start issuing directives about how if you do not train you do not play. Enough is enough with these soft tissue injuries which could be resolved with simple exercises and diet, which is obviously not happening.. Ozzie said in a post game that its all on the player, I have a funny feeling Herm Schneider would disagree (at least a bit) with that. The staff get paid to keep these guys healthy and on the field, otherwise why bother having them?
Tell them all to pile into their little car and go away.
How do you know the cause of these injuries? It could be an underlying condition. Don’t be so judgmental.
But thats the point, what is the cause? That is up to the conditioning staff to figure out. Its up to Eloy to be honest about his diet and conditioning, or lack thereof.
Says the once great ex-MLB player, MLB trainer, manager, nrd1138
I’m old enough to remember when you said this.
“+35 HR for both Eloy & Robert…Eloy & Vaughn will both come into their on this year. Call me crazy but look me up after the season.”
mlbtraderumors.com/2024/03/offseason-in-review-chi…
Don’t you think you’ve made enough dumb comments this year?
Jimenez will join the blue jays next year, the jays need another player to help finish off the desert at the buffet
Imagine a team of vlad Kirk vogelbach manoah and Jimenez
“Imagine a team of Vlad Kirk vogelbach”…If that ever happened, the Blue Jays would need to radically reduce payroll, just to pay for the daily post game spread.
With manoah back in the majors if Jimenez was added then Roger’s centre would smell like a OK corral
More like a Golden Corral you mean.
He’s missed 41% of his games through four full seasons. If he misses the rest of this year, he will have missed ~48% of his five full seasons of baseball. That’s….impressive?
Its impressive that in all of that time the org apparently has not taken steps to work with the player to reduce and eliminate many of these issues, despite the insane amount of money they are paying said player.
Im admittedly too lazy to check but I can only imagine how much money the Sox have thrown away with these ‘core’ guys (Robert, Moncada, Jimenez, and Anderson) who cannot stay on the field because, ironically, they have a lot of injury issues in their ‘core’ area of their bodies.
valid points.
Count me among the surprised.
ILoy
ILoy!
The White Sox team is made of glass. I mean they field the ball wrong and they’re injured for a month.
I’m ready for the Vaughn/Benintendi DH platoon to begin. Because I want to see a lot less Vaughn and never want to see AB in the field again.
Pretty sure Vaughn wants to see a lot less Chicago in general. Kid grew up in Sonoma County, California and went to college in Berkeley. Convinced he will hit once he’s out of black and white, but he’s proving me wrong so far about the hit tool.
Do feel like he needs a change of scenery (even if the Sox are average at developing bats, which they haven’t shown).
Thought he was already hurt n missing games. NO WAY Sox pick-up that option, he is literally the guy u can trade a bucket of balls for.
Moncada and Eloy will both be additions by subtractions after this year.
This dude needs new hamstrings
Rebuild doesn’t really start until Baby, Yoyo, Junior and Kopech move on. Does Getz drag his heels or remove the Band-Aid with one swift yank?
Yep pretty much. I was hoping Getz would trade Eloy for a hitting prospect and a lottery ticket.
Prior to the start of the season, he had no trade value. He has a $3M buyout attached to a $16M contract.
Why do you think any team would give up a legitimate prospect for a guy with his track record? They wouldn’t. They would simply sign a free agent with no strings attached.
That trade with Sox for Quintana stings a little less each day
From Eloy-Hi Mom!! Guess where I am At ! Again! Don’t worry Mom- I am still getting paid as usual!
He just can’t run and he might make a season