The Blue Jays and outfielder/designated hitter Eloy Jimenez are in agreement on a minor league contract, as first reported by Mike Rodriguez. The Klutch Sports 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
Best of luck to Eloy, but I bet your hat is safe.
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.
Except they really didn’t make any significant veteran signings. No Manny Machado, no Bryce Harper, no Marcus Semien; just Yasmani Grandal and Dallas Keuchel.
Jerry Reinsdorf simply refuses to spend whatbit takes to win at this level. He needs to go the way of Bill Wirtz for the White Sox to have any chance of winning ever again.
Yes, definitely they need to supplement the young core with a big signing or two.
It is an irony that I suspect is lost on most younger Chicago fans: the Sox have sorta become what the Cubs were during the Wrigley era. Like Phil Wrigley, Reinsdorf seems to be not only cheap but philosophically opposed to spending big on talent. He sees himself as stemming the tide. But with the Ishbia succession plan in place, he won’t be in charge much longer.
I hope the Orioles don’t become another iteration of the White Sox circa 2019-2021. A bunch of young prospects that don’t get augmented with free agent talent and then wither on the vine.
Ignorant SOAB, the O’s are already there. Their core has no stones. I’d argue the ChiSox core four years ago was FAR more capable. The current O’s core? They’re toothless. Spoiled. Can’t handle failure. Both the O’s collapse and the ChiSox’s are worthy of a good investigative reporter for the sake of a book about insane, colossal failure.
This is the most dramatic take comparing the two and saying the Orioles are already there.
The White Sox made the playoffs in 2021 and have been horrible otherwise. The Orioles turned the corner in the second half of 22 and then made the playoffs in 23 and 24, winning a division and a wildcard. That alone is better performance compared with the White Sox. Chicago has shipped off a lot of those younger players who were supposed to be the core, so the run is over. Baltimore is still in progress/within their run and have only had one down year, this year. A LOT had to go wrong and it did in the beginning of the season. From the end of may until the second week in August, the orioles had the 4th best record in the game. They are nowhere near done and will absolutely be back next year and moving forward. Too many people are trying to kick that team while they were down but their best baseball has yet to be seen. They need a front line pitcher, absolutely, but Bradish and Rogers are very good starters who are just as capable of carrying a staff and have both proven it. If they get another top of the rotation arm they will easily be one of the top teams in the game next season. Just wait until next season before you start throwing dramatic takes like that out there.
Lol no, wrong. The O’s were a .500 club in the second half of 2024. They utterly failed in every playoff game. They can’t hit in the clutch. They’re cooked. Rutschman has been worse every year, others are too fragile, Holliday is lucky to be league average, Cowser and Mayo can’t hit, Mounty’s power evaporated, none of them play defense well, base running is garbage… they’re weak. They’ve all regressed. And the holes in their roster are much more than SP. Everyone knows that. The pen needs total reconstruction, 1B is a giant black hole, the OF is 2/3 of a black hole, and 2B is just meh.
You act like this year is the only example. The last half of 2024 was a big hint. They’re only going to get worse – because the HITTERS are the main problem. They’re spoiled, and incapable of adjusting fast enough to be the unit Elias thought they’d be. And they eat a plateful of choke under pressure.
You’ll see. Anyone who’s been watching their lifeless brand of ball can see it. “Dramatic takes” nothing. Their best ball was 2023. Downhill ever since. Window is closing fast. Also you acting like Trevor Rogers is an ace based on… 13 starts? Is a laugher. Bradish, after one start, and you think those two are the key, while ignoring all the offensive woes. What planet are you on?
I guess we will just have to see now won’t we. Calling a team that won 101 and 91 games the last two seasons falling off or bad is just absurd. The initial comparison was that Baltimores core was comparable to Chicagos and that is just plainly false.
Compare the records from when the cores started getting called up. You can start Baltimores with the call up of Adley and it won’t matter who you choose for the White Sox, it’s obvious Baltimore is the better team.
It’s evident what the problems in Baltimore were this season and parts of last (which, again they still won 91 games) – injuries, missed opportunities by the front office and bad management, especially in the 23 series vs Texas. Bradish very much pitched like a front of the rotation arm prior to injury and although one major league start back proves nothing long term, it’s clear he has recovered well and is ready to ramp up the innings and head into the offseason to prepare for a full 2026. Rogers has shown promise throughout his short career and no, I don’t expect that he will continue pitching as excellent as he has, I do think he will be a very solid number 2/3 in the rotation. Bautista is a big hole but not one they can’t overcome. Wells would be a great option at the back end of the bullpen. Pitching is the biggest concern for the season, as is with most teams.
They need to get another front end starter, a bullpen piece and bring in a veteran manager and they will be fine. Baltimore will be in the World Series and win one in the next 3 years. Like I said earlier, we will see.
The organization has been rebuilt in a way that will make it difficult to be as bad as it was frequently under the previous ownership and management, where they were irrelevant for decades except for 2-3 season runs here and there.
Well, hope that kool aid tastes good, because you’re completely wrong. Starting pitching is not their greatest need. The core cannot produce. There is MUCH change needed for them to contend again.
Again, we will see. The team has plenty of talent to win, the core is far from as inept as you are making it seem but time will tell. As it stands now they are still better than the White Sox core from ‘21 forward.
Their OPS over the past two weeks is less than 13 teams’ OBP alone.
I rest my case.
Two weeks to rest your case? That’s just as comical as your initial comparison that started this whole thread. Additionally you can’t “rest your case” when comparing multiple seasons of one core compared to another when one team is still within that window of comparison.
Everyone knows that the remaining schedule for Baltimore is to develop players they just called up and get them experience for evaluation, getting guys back from injury etc. This will be an extremely competitive team next season and I’d bet that they make a deep postseason run.
It’s still funny how you are saying all this in an obviously lost season for Baltimore but not in 23 or 24, when they had more wins combined than anyone else in the division – including Boston and NY
Your defense of a pathetic offensive team that can’t hit with RISP and has been collectively no better than league average since June 2024 is actually laughable. Keep believing whatever you need to, but maybe shove off on the insults when your orange-colored koolaid glasses are the epitome of naive – and blind.
Again, bring up whatever stats you want, the only one that matters is the W and everything I’ve said, regardless of it being the White Sox teams you used or the AL East seasons I brought up, the Orioles have more wins.
Although in the grand scheme of things, none of the teams we’ve discussed have a ring during the period in question. I guess it doesn’t really matter much when you are out to win but everyone mentioned was sitting and watching the World Series winning team celebrate for the past 5 years or so.
And yet you ignore the O’s’ core’s downward trajectory since the 2024 ASB as if the downturn last year and pathetic offensive showing against KC didn’t happen.
I’m not ignoring anything. There is no such thing as a perfect team and I never said that improvements in other areas outside of the rotation wouldn’t be welcomed. Obviously every team can improve in every area but again going back to the main point of the argument you made trying to state Orioles core vs. White Sox, which I said was laughable. That was the goalpost, which was better, not that improvement couldn’t be made.
Yeah those things happen. Don’t strike while the core is there. Orioles say hold my beer.
I’m not a White Sox fan, but I’d point out that Jimenez failed for the Orioles and Rays since leaving the Sox. At some point, the reflexive Sox-bashing will end–probably next season when it becomes apparent to all that their management has built an exciting young team.
You’re not a White Sox fan but you hate the “Sox-bashing” while indulging in negativity about the Cubs, Alan
@Stein: As is often the case, it’s hard to tell exactly what your point is. You are what my Yiddish grandfather would have called a “farbissener,” a bitter person. Are you saying that I’m lying, that I am actually a Sox fan, rather than a Cubs fan? If that is what you think, you are wrong: I am a passionate Cubs fan, and in fact I am often annoyed at the pettiness and nastiness that is part of the Sox’ institutional makeup. I don’t wish the Sox well.
But I don’t like superficiality and unthoughtfulness, and people who think the Sox are as bad as they were last season, and speak or write about them in such a way, are being superficial and unthoughtful. So I mention that. The Sox are vastly improved and improving, and they have some energetic and talented young players who I wish were on the Cubs. They would add some much-needed “ruach”–that’s a Hebrew word, it means “oomph,” “energy”–to the lineup.
As for the Cubs, I don’t think I am “indulging in negativity”; I am just being realistic. The sharp drop-off in the hitting of pretty much all the position players has put the team in a position where they might not make the postseason–which didn’t seem possible a few weeks ago. I am stressed and worried; I don’t want my team to lose, and I don’t want to hear and read nasty people mocking them. They have been so, so mocked over the many years.
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.
I’m not sure “conditioning” solved Bautista’s “problems” and led to a major offensive explodion over two huge offensive seasons followed by two injury riddled seasons…
If you get a nice conditioner that makes your scalp tingle it can solve a lot of problems. Not worrying about split ends at the plate is something that can’t be reflected in advanced statistical analysis.
… injury riddled 3.8 and 4.5 WAR seasons, followed by two more dominant healthy seasons where he was in the top 8 of the MVP vote, followed by another above average season before declining after 35 like almost everyone outside of the steroid era does.
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.
Hamstring is not a muscle.
Uh… yes it is. It’s actually a group of three muscles.
Now if they can trade for buddy Luis Robert to form 1,2 punch.
Sox seem intent on picking up his option, which is stupid because no other team would pay him $20M.
Doesn’t it seem that a high percentage of White Sox top prospects flame out quickly after a short burst of MLB success?
Less so for pitchers. Sale had some injury struggles, but was largely good when healthy. Rodon had a rough initial year with the Yankees, but has largely been solid. Cease has had a down year, but his fWAR has generally been reasonably good. But on position players, yep. About the only who was good for an extended time with the team was Abreu, but he was a bit old to be making his debut.
Jays are really cornering the market on guys named Jimenez or Gimenez.
He had a few good.moments but typically a hard hit single. No speed for logging out a double and too many ground balls. Balt staff couldn’t get him to elevate the ball…
To be fair, there are far more capable hitters that Balt staff has broken
Big Baby back in business……I don’t think so.