The Blue Jays and outfielder/designated hitter Eloy Jimenez are in agreement on a minor league contract, as first reported by Mike Rodriguez. The Premier Talent Sports & Entertainment client was with the Rays organization earlier this season but was cut loose around the All-Star break.
Jimenez, 28, was a top prospect with the Cubs and White Sox and looked to be emerging as a core piece for the latter when he debuted with a 31-homer rookie campaign back in 2019. The slugger signed a six-year, $43MM contract before ever taking a single at-bat in the majors, and that impressive rookie effort made the contract look like a potential bargain. Unfortunately for Jimenez and the South Siders, injuries derailed his trajectory. Jimenez was again excellent in 2020, hitting .296/.332/.559 with 14 homers in the pandemic-shortened season, but he’s struggled to stay on the field since.
From 2021-24, Jimenez played in just 357 games — only 55% of his teams’ contests. A ruptured pectoral tendon cost him more than four months of the 2021 season. He missed nearly three months of the 2022 season due to a torn hamstring. In 2023, he strained his other hamstring muscle and also missed more than a month due to an appendectomy. Jimenez’s 2024 season was cut short by an adductor strain and a third hamstring strain.
Beyond limiting Jimenez’s time on the field, the series of health issues clearly had an impact on his offensive output. He was terrific in 84 games in 2022 but posted roughly league-average offense in both 2021 and 2023. His 2024 season was well below average, with the formerly imposing slugger turning in a meek .238/.289/.336 slash in 349 plate appearances between the White Sox and the Orioles, who acquired him at last summer’s trade deadline.
Jimenez appeared in 40 Triple-A games with the Rays this season, hitting .278/.335/.397 with three home runs. He continued to show quality contact skills (17.4% strikeout rate), but his batted-ball metrics were well shy of his career marks in the majors. Jimenez averaged 89.6 mph off the bat in Triple-A Durham and logged a 43.5% hard-hit rate. He’s averaged 91.5 mph with a 49.3% hard-hit rate as a big leaguer.
Though Jimenez is something of a long shot to contribute at this point, there’s no harm in the Jays taking a no-risk look at a formerly prominent slugger on a non-guaranteed pact. He might need a quick tune-up in the low minors before jumping into the fray at Triple-A Buffalo, having been out of action for seven-plus weeks, but Jimenez will be a depth option for Toronto in the final month of the season. And, since he’s signing before Sept. 1, he’ll be postseason-eligible should he show enough to be selected to the big league roster at some point. If not, he’ll play out the season in Buffalo and head back to the offseason free agent market in search of what would surely be another minor league contract ahead of his age-29 campaign in 2026.
This could be a sneaky good pick up. Both Jimenez and Robert could be motivated back to their potential with a change of scenery. Maybe wearing the jersey of a team that actually gives a s**t about winning can get them back on track.
Eloy wasn’t good with playoff bound Balt last year or enough for TBay this year-it’s on him for personal responsibility. TA and Moncada same meh/injured results after leaving. Vaughn’s had a nice stretch w/Milw to see if he can sustain it next year. WSox have to hope some new voices for hitting helps reverse 25yrs of position player development futility.
He was with the playoff-bound O’s last year and had maybe two good weeks, and then was in TB’s system during the part of this season when they were a competitor.
If it’s a third competitive jersey that changes his trajectory and magically fixes how often he pounds the ball into the dirt, I’ll eat my hat. Hope he does since he seems like a big happy guy that has been dealt some poor luck, but I don’t really see it happening
This makes absolutely no sense, wearing a different jersey suddenly doesn’t result in a succession of debilitating injuries in his prime? Did you stay in a Red Roof Inn this time instead of a Holiday Inn Express?
The narrative a few years ago was that the White Sox assembled a glut of talented youngsters, inked them to extensions and were set to dominate the AL Central. They went on to support that young core with some veteran signings.
Im hindsight, many terrible moves were made and the White Sox failed spectacularly but it certainly wasn’t a lack of effort on part of the club.
Jose Bautista came to the Jays at age 27. Not saying. Just saying.
Maybe they can get Eloy to start doing proper conditioning and solve some of his problems.
A nice, cheap lottery ticket.
It’s not a lottery ticket, that implies unused. This is more like checking through discarded tickets at the track hoping to find a winner.
A used lottery ticket is still a lottery ticket.