The Orioles announced that first baseman Ryan Mountcastle has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. Designated hitter/outfielder Eloy Jiménez was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk as a corresponding move. Jiménez has more than five years of major league service time and therefore can’t be optioned without his consent, so he presumably has agreed to this move. The club also announced that right-hander Craig Kimbrel, who was designated for assignment last week, has been released.
Jiménez was acquired from the White Sox at the deadline in a buy-low move. From 2019 through 2023, he had hit .275/.324/.487 for the White Sox, with that production translating to a 118 wRC+. Mounting injuries were becoming a growing concern but he had generally hit when on the field.
Here in 2024, the injury-prone label got branded a little deeper. He twice went on the IL in the first couple of months of the season, once due to a left adductor strain and another for a left hamstring strain. His production had also slipped, as he was hitting .240/.297/.345 for an 82 wRC+ when the Orioles traded for him, sending minor league reliever Trey McGough the other way.
The change of scenery hasn’t helped, as Jiménez has hit .232/.270/.316 for a 68 wRC+ since coming to Baltimore. The club had been battling a number of position player injuries in recent weeks but each of Jordan Westburg, Ramón Urías and now Mountcastle have returned to the active roster in the past few days, which has squeezed Jiménez from the roster.
Though he has the right to reject an optional assignment, it’s understandable why he would accept. There’s only a handful of days left in the season and he wouldn’t be postseason eligible with any other club at this point. Rather than look for other opportunities, he will hold his 40-man roster spot with the O’s and hope to be able to contribute in the club’s postseason run at some point. He came into the campaign with exactly five years of service time and already has enough in 2024 to add another full season to that.
His contract has a $16.5MM option for 2025 with a $3MM buyout that the O’s are sure to decline after a rough season from Jiménez. As part of the trade, the White Sox are covering half of that buyout. That will send him to free agency where he will be looking to market himself as a bounceback candidate. It’s obviously been a rough season but he’s still fairly young, turning 28 in November, and has a strong pre-2024 track record.
As for Kimbrel, a release was the expected outcome after he was designated for assignment last week. He wouldn’t have been postseason eligible with any club claiming him off waivers. Even grabbing him for a few regular season games would be costly as his contract has a $1MM buyout on a 2025 club option. That would be on top of the roughly $400K of his $12MM salary that is still to be paid out in the final week of this season.
Given his 5.33 earned run average on the year, no club was going to pay that price. As a veteran with years of service time, he has the right to reject an outright assignment, so the O’s have simply skipped the formalities and let him go.
It will be an interesting offseason for Kimbrel, who is now 36 years old and coming off a rough showing. Some may expect him to call it a career but he has come back from down years before. In both 2019 and 2020, he posted an ERA north of 5.00, but bounced back with a 2.21 ERA in 2021. He then had two more solid seasons before his 2024 struggles. Some clubs may be interested in taking a flier and hoping for another comeback, though he likely won’t be the first choice of club’s with championship aspirations.
Man Eloy has fallen. Hopefully he can get a reboot and return to his promise.
bestnos: He seemed to have a strong start with the O’s. Maybe now, with decent coaching, he can become the hitter he used to be.
avenger65: Or he’s just washed up. Happens eventually to every player.
Guess it was a fluke. Had some hits but no power Although it can hard for anyone who doesn’t get regular playing time
In Chicago this year, it seemed that he couldn’t get the ball into the air. He slammed one ground ball after another, always an easy out at first even though he hit the ball hard. Sox announcers used to speculate on whether the team could get him to loft the ball, but it all came to naught.
Exactly, he had some good EVs in Baltimore but not good Launch Angles.
He did have a good start to his time in Baltimore, so Im not sure what is more surprising: his about face swoon in Sept, or that the White Sox are covering half of his buyout.
He will not be with them next season I would imagine.
holecamels35: Ya think?
E-loy! Apparently, “change of scenery” bump sometimes only lasts a few weeks.
He honestly seems to me like he just doesn’t care, and is only there to get paid a la Rendon. Such a shame, because he had all the promise in the world.
He doesn’t have huge contract like Rendon so I disagree. But agree Rendon seems like he wishes they would just release him so he could get paid while in retirement
if Eloy refuses the assignment does he void the remaining 2 years on his contract?
never mind… team option
The 2 years left on his contract are club options. He has a $3MM buyout and the White Sox are paying half of it. I’m assuming that the O’s and White Sox will both be paying him $1.5MM to play elsewhere next season regardless
thank you
To answer the question generally, if his two remaining years were guaranteed, rejecting the outright assignment would NOT void them. If a player rejects an outright assignment, the team has to either put him back on the roster or release him, eating the contract as they would any other release.
thank you
Eloy (overrated) jiminez
I wouldn’t call him overrated, just plain old not- rated.
Remember when Jimenez, Moncada, Robert, Anderson, et al was considered one of the best young cores in the league?
Man, that’s a bust list.
Don’t forget the “can’t miss” Andrew Vaughn.
To be fair at the time it looked great on paper. I was thinking they would rule the central for a while.
Add Vaughn to that awful list too.
“Add Vaughn”…1B/DH body types HAVE to hit, so it may be risky drafting them in the top 10. Guys like Vaughn, Spencer Torkelson and Pittsburgh’s Henry Davis(supposedly a catcher)may be all in the same boat, because there’s no other all around skills to fall back on.
Despite his faults, TA at least worked hard to make him self a very good hitter “after” a contract extension. The other 3 cashed checks and way too much IL time. They are a cautionary tale that extensions of youth aren’t always wise.
Keep players motivated,
I still have questions about the White Sox training staff during this era with the high number of soft tissue injuries.
Especially in the light of recent reports of poor departmental communication and antiquated facilities.
I think the problem was giving what is a lot of money to guys like Jimenez Robert and Moncada, more money than many of them ever saw. once that happened they were on easy street. Many players keep trying to get better, these guys just lounged around and never made the attempt, which is a shame as I think Moncada has talent, you do not just get 5 hits in a game twice in a season, just was always a question of ‘want’ with him and the others to me. The orgs apparent same attitude in not pushing these guys and the abhorrent training staff of clowns did not help
Kimbrel is garbage and he has been for the last three years. After his failures with the Phillies, Dodgers and White Sox, the O’s had to have been pretty desperate to sign him.
Red Sox should sign him again and have him close out the last few games. I forget if they changed the rules but if not a few more blown saves might improve their drafting slot.
They’d get better results from 75-year old Jim Willoughby.
A blast from the past! I’ve said it before but Sonny Siebert was my favorite pitcher (outside of El Tiante) since he hit two home runs in the first game I ever saw at Fenway.
They were. They had the top closer in baseball on the IL. Although Elias did fail a bit at the trade deadline not getting Tanner Scott back on the team
Eloy’s cooked.
I honestly think he’s just brittle and a bit clumsy.
Eloy probably comes back for the playoffs as a bench bat, as Baltimore won’t need 13 pitchers for the first two rounds.
In case you need a pinch single
Big assumption we will make it past the first round. They haven’t been playing well at all.
Just got back Urias, Westburg, and Mounty. Hopefully that helps a bit. Adley needs to get it together though.
Baltimore released Kimbrel before the 10 days of the DFA period had passed. No team was going to make a trade for him.
It seems as if Bal did him a small favor by releasing him as it is possible that some team will pick him up for the last partial week of the season for the prorated MLB minimum salary.
Trade deadline is over. So that was off the table.
I still can’t seem to understand the Eloy trade for the Orioles.
Filled dh role vs lefties. He started off good but all singles. Too much on the ground and he’s not fast.
It was just flyer on a former big bat and it didn’t cost them much to kick the tires.
Unfortunately he’s not 100% and leg injuries have sapped him of all his power.
Os FO has a history here. In 2022 they brought in Jesus Aguilar after his release from the Fish. Same results.
Aaron Hicks worked.
Albert Belle did not
Not sure what the has to do with. Belle was a big time FA signing that got hurt. Hicks, Jimenez, Aguilar were all guys who cut or salary dumped mid-season that Os took fliers on. All teams do it, and sometimes it works. None of them are going to set back a franchise like Belles injury did.
Eloy will be interesting on the free agent market as a DH bat that someone will think they can fix. I could see the Marlins or Reds taking a flier
He’ll have to go to the minors snd show he can hit. Nobody’s going to waste a roster spot on a DH-only.
Next stop; Nippon League.
Yeah they got Eflin but holy crap this past trade deadline looks worse and worse as time goes by.
Baltimore whiffed at the deadline. All those super prospects aren’t looking like they will all turn out to be ML ready players but next April. This organization has more questions then answers
All I can say about this guy, is his agent did a very good job at getting him life changing money before his overall lack of conditioning and numerous other weaknesses and holes in his game got completely exposed.
So did the Cubs win that trade or did Theo still get fleeced? Since both Eloy and Cease are no longer with the White Sox?
I think both teams got what they wanted. Quintana may not have been the best pitcher over the full life of that contract but short term they got a reliable, cost controlled rotation piece. He helped them get to the 2017 playoffs.
The White Sox got two major league pieces. That neither is still with them is a bummer but that’s just how it works sometimes.
Eloy needs to hit the market, join Red Sox for cheap as DH and figure it out.
With the minor leagues essentially over, what exactly did Jimenez agree to? Basically nothing.
“Basically nothing”..He’s allowing them to better manage and utilize their roster. For me, it’s a good sign that his head may still be in the right place.
There’s no sense in being petulant and uncooperative when you’ll soon be looking for another job.
I may be wrong, but if he is off the roster at end of season no one has to pay his buyoff.
He basically stays on the 40 man and is available for the playoffs if for some reason he’s needed.
Stick a fork in Kimbrel. A power pitcher with marked decline in velocity has no future. Bouncing back after 36 is much harder than 26. He had a great career. It’s a shame the wheels fell off when he was on my team.
Agreed on both accounts. Mlb said over the winter they became aware of a new “trick” players from the DR were using to falsify ages. They said it encompassed multiple players up to the majors. Who can forget Miguel Tejada gaining years mid career?
Mike Elias is responsible for both these bad choices, each of which was a bad choice long before it was made.
Here’s hoping he learns from the experience
FOmeOLS
Why was Eloy a ‘bad choice”?
The O’s had injuries. They needed a RH bat. Eloy hit well for them the first month or so as a part-time DH. They knew their RH position players would be back at he end of the regular season. The players came back. Elroy didn’t respond to coaching. They took him off the roster.
I know that a guy like you expected them to get a RH bat such as Bobby Witt Jr. or Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for a couple of so-so prospects, but alas things just didn’t work out that way. OK maybe Elias should have pushed harder, but you’re right, he’s deficient in that way.
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Let us in on who the 2nd guy is.
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PS. You haven’t the slightest clue how the Orioles run their organization.
He was a bad choice because he has no defense and no speed and his exit velocity is usually at a negative launch angle.
So yeah.
And it took a while for Elias to admit he’d made a bad pickup purely because it was cheap, but now he’s gone and no one mourns.
The thing is the Elfin trade was so amazing that it washes out everything else. Soto has been much better than era suggest as it’s based on 8 runs during first 3 appearances. Dominguez has been okay. Slater was not awful. Let’s not talk about Ridgers.
Now as for the baby birds.
Injuries, bad luck, and rookie jitters. Cowser stunk on ice and now is OPS+ing 121. Rutschman has a 3.2 WAR on his down year. Henderson would be the mvp is 60% of normal years. Westburg ran into bad luck, but still having fine season. GRod is up in the air. I think major surgery is not if, but when. Kjerstad is an incomplete as 2 months in concussion messed up a promising start. Holliday is 20, and Mayo aint much older. Maybe starting year on roster will solve their problems.
Henderson: A+
Westburg: B+
Cowser: B-
Rutschman: B-
GRod: C+
Holliday: D-
Mayo: I
Kherstad: I
Eflin deal was great but watch out for Baumeister. Idc about Horvath/Etzel as utility types but he may be a big loss. TB will get the most out of him. (Probably get a TJ along the way) I’d still have given him up but I suspect the deal won’t look quite so lopsided in a few years.
If he pitches meaningful games deep into October/November I don’t really care to be honest. True is I’ll rather have the 2015 Royals or 2016 Cubs than Milwaukee, TB, or Minnesota.
Do you have evidence to support either change? Otherwise, your comment is outrageous and irresponsible.
nytimes.com/athletic/5231394/2024/01/27/mlb-age-fa…
Feel free to use Google realsox. Also feel free to virtue signal elsewhere. Latin American countries and the DR specifically have been known to have issues with record keeping and straight identity theft. Who can forget Fausto Carmona undergoing a mid career name change to Fausto Sanchez? You can I guess…
You must be new here. He writes shock type posts quite a bit.
Thanks for the tip, Manfred.