The White Sox announced today that designated hitter/outfielder Eloy Jiménez has been sent to the Arizona Complex League White Sox on an injury rehab assignment. Rehab assignments for non-pitchers come with a 20-day maximum before they need to be reinstated from the injured list, if there’s no health setback.
Jiménez, 27, suffered a left hamstring strain about three weeks ago. Manager Pedro Grifol said at that time that Jiménez was going to miss an “extended period of time” without putting a firm timeline on it. Now it seems that he’s ready to get back into games and, barring a setback, return to the major league club by the beginning of July or perhaps sooner.
The timeline is notable since Jiménez is an obvious candidate to be traded before the trade deadline. The White Sox are deep into a rebuild, having traded away players like Dylan Cease, Lucas Giolito, Lance Lynn, Aaron Bummer, Robbie Grossman, Reynaldo López, Jake Burger and others in the past year. They have a dismal record of 17-52 this season, the worst in the majors by a significant margin.
Jiménez is in the final guaranteed season of the six-year, $43MM extension he signed with the Sox going into 2019. He’s making $13MM this year and then there are two club options. Next year’s is priced at $16.5MM with an $18.5MM option for 2026, with each of those having a $3MM buyout.
Over the course of that deal, he has shown the ability to be a significant threat in the lineup, but he has often struggled to deliver on that promise due to injuries. He has a career slash line of .271/.321/.479, which translates to a wRC+ of 116, indicating he’s been 16% better than league average overall.
However, his 122 games played in his rookie season are still a personal best. Since then, he has only once hit the 85-game mark. He has spent time on the IL 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.
It’s possible that the compounding injuries are taking a toll on his body. He slashed .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 isn’t really a burner on the bases nor a strong fielder, the lesser offensive output is a blow to his value.
With the health problems and his diminished results of late, the interest is likely to be muted. What might help the Sox, however, is the expanded playoff field. As of this moment, the Sox are one of just five clubs that are more than 4.5 games away from a playoff spot. All other clubs will have to make some difficult decisions about how much to sell or whether to do any at all. The Rays and Blue Jays are reportedly putting off the decision until later while Astros general manager Dana Brown has said he plans on buying even though his club is near the back of the playoff race.
The Orioles could reportedly be looking for a right-handed hitting outfielder. The Mariners are leading their division but fired their offensive coordinator but of their struggles at the plate. Atlanta lost Ronald Acuña Jr. for the year and has been scuffling offensively lately. The Royals have a terrible outfield, something that MLBTR’s Steve Adams recently explored for Front Office subscribers. Teams like the Cardinals, Guardians, Reds, Rangers, Cubs, Blue Jays and Twins could be looking for some extra firepower.
Before any of that can even be a consideration, Jiménez will have to get healthy and stay that way for long enough to show some promise against major league pitchers. This year’s trade deadline is on July 30.
Eloy bout to get lit up by A ball pitching
but how will this affect their World Series chances?
It won’t.
Vegas has them at about a 1 in 1000 chance to win the world series. Place your bets now!
He’ll get injured on the rehab.
This guy and Luis Robert…….
Fans need to wake up. Forget the silly advanced stats. These are not budding superstars. They’re not even good ML players. They do more things that hurt a team during most games then they do that help it.
Luis Robert not a good major leaguer? LOL. 4.9 fWAR last season.
“Forget the silly advanced stats”
Immediately quotes advanced stats in reply
Sorry, I refuse the premise when the premise is “ignore factual data.”
“Ignore factual data”..
There’s really nothing “factual” about advanced statistics. It’s based on a lot of suppositions and estimates that you either believe or don’t. Several analytic computations assume a constant, unchanging ball speed, which never actually happens in baseball. The ball speed literally changes on every single play in baseball and is never actually constant. Don’t kid yourself into believing that Babe Ruth’s(or W.Mays or H.Aaron) career W.A.R number is “factual”.
Haha. “I don’t believe in math” is a thing you can say, but it’s not a valid counterpoint.
Don’t kid yourself into believing that Babe Ruth’s(or W.Mays or H.Aaron) career W.A.R number is “factual”.
======================
WAR is based on real numbers. You might disagree with the weighting of the individual components, but it is an objective calculation.
And just for fun, add up the top WARs from 2023, and then compare them to the team records. You’ll see that they are highly correlated.
Better to find an argument that bests him at his own game though no? Technically by him saying “forget advanced stats” he is daring you to argue a point other than advanced stats. By only quoting advanced stats wouldn’t that prove the point he is technically trying to make? Which is advanced stats are the only way to prove this point.
Also…. Maybe 10-15 years from now we will laugh at the early 2000’s version of advanced stats.
4.9 WAR on the 101-loss White Sox doesn’t mean as much as 4.9 WAR on the Braves.
Robert is a good player, Eloy not so much.
Since WAR is an individual and not a team stat, it means the same thing.
mattv;
‘Forget the silly advanced stats.”
You ever watch that guy play for any length of time?
Again, when the premise is “ignore facts,” I reject the premise.
And yes, I have.
Asking “have you watched the guy play?” is such a condescending thing to say. You sound like a boomer with a stick up their butt. Like your assessment is the correct one and any factual analysis that proves otherwise only means the person doesn’t watch baseball and just relies on numbers/box scores.
Unfortunately, numbers are the proof in the pudding and your cataract infested eyes don’t mean anything.
What “facts” are those?
Following MLB, the only “facts” that matter to me is how a team does in the standings and playoffs, and how their individual players help – or hurt – the team.
If the statistical “facts” reflect that, then we wouldn’t read ridiculous predictions every year which never turn out to be in the ballpark.
There are such things as winning and losing players, which are reflected in high or low Baseball IQ’s when they’re on the field and involved in plays.
Predictions are based on anticipated future performance using past performance as a guide. Stats are reflections of actual performance. Nice strawman about predictions. It’s like you don’t even understand what a prefix is when it comes to the word prediction or how online media works when it comes to generating traffic.
You have a very low baseball IQ, so you have no right to determine the baseball IQ of actual players. If your baseball knowledge was gasoline, you couldn’t power a matchbox car around a penny.
You can’t compare Eloy and Robert. Robert averages 34 HRs per 162 games, with a GG.
Agree on Eloy, strongly disagree on Robert. Robert is a top defensive CF with speed and power. His biggest warts, aside from his health issues, are he doesn’t take walks and he’s prone to sliders low and away. Despite those issues, he’s one of the top CF in baseball when healthy.
Luis Robert has good stats by old school metrics, too
Sadly, this is a repeat story 20 times over. I will set the o/u at 7.5 games played before going back to the IL.
Article could have said Jimenez is constantly rehabing some kind of injury. Why he’ll never be considered a plus player in minds of non Chisox fans.
Several teams have players in this category. Loaded with talent, always injured. His teamate Robert is like this. Tyler o’neal wearing red sox another.
Having loads of raw talent, yet being constantly injured isn’t enough
Does he REALLY have “loads of raw talent” anymore? He’s a ground ball dispenser who can’t play a position in the field and is a snail on the basepaths.
If he were still arbitration-eligible, he would be non-tendered. Unfortunately, they will have to pay a buyout to make him go away.
I will take the over, but not by much. Eloy will get hot for two weeks, and then he’s going to pull his hamstring.
I never muted anybody.
I’m sure they’re praying that they can get him healthy for a two-week stretch and offload him for a mid-tier prospect. Good luck with that.
That’s the plan. Problem is, he’s only going to last two weeks and back to the IL he goes…
He’s too expensive. There is no trade to be made.
Yawn. I have no interest in the guy beyond what modest return he might fetch next month. Prediction: if Baby is still on the Sox on Opening Day ’25, you can book several stints on IR and another 100+ loss season. I want Baby, YoYo, Junior and Kopech gone by the start of next season.
Boy this season has caused him to be an alcoholic…. How sad but glad he is getting the help he needs
What’s a 20’days minimum?
As an O’s fan I imagine they could get quite a bit of mileage out of him. That being said, we have so many younger guys deserving of an opportunity to prove themselves that don’t have the injury bug as a mark against them. A move to acquire him is unlikely to push us from worlds series contender to world series winner in my opinion. More solidification in the rotation/bullpen is what I would be more interested in. But Mejdal and Elias know what they’re doing so I put my faith in them.
Not sure what, if anything, this means but in the general category of Guys Who Are Always Hurt I was surprised to learn that in half the career number of games played, Jimenez has substantially stronger offensive numbers than Byron Buxton. I didn’t think it would be that disparate.
Who would give something up for a DH that can’t hit or stay healthy?
Gotta prep him for his next IL stint.
Ugh. Just release him already. Free up those at-bats for someone who may actually have a future here, or at the very least, someone who may have some trade value.