Why the White Sox Should Trade Eloy Jimenez This Offseason
The Dominican slugger was supposed to be a middle-of-the-order force that would anchor this lineup for a decade.
I famously once said that I believed Jimenez would be the first player in White Sox history to eclipse the 50-homer plateau because of his easy power from the right side. None of these things have happened.
Injuries and inconsistency at the plate have been the hallmarks of his time at the corner of 35th/Shields. We’ve seen glimpses of the mid-lineup masher we were promised only to be followed by prolonged stretches of beating the ball into the ground, killing Roger Bossard’s landscaping of the infield grass, and extended trips to the injured list. To say that Jimenez hasn’t lived up to the billing would be an understatement.
As Chris Getz tries to put his stamp on the Sox roster going forward, we have to ask the question if Jimenez’s time on the South Side has come to an end. For many, it would be a welcomed departure as a sizable portion of the fan base has grown tired of not being able to count on the 26-year-old outfielder/DH.
Fitting The Prototype
Upon his promotion to general manager, Chris Getz has had some very clear messaging regarding what he is trying to accomplish when building the White Sox roster.
For weeks now, we have heard there will be an emphasis on defense, base running, and having players that are multi-dimensional and athletic.
Getz isn’t wrong in his assessment that the Sox need improvement in these areas. For far too long, this club has lacked versatility and the ability to make routine plays defensively.
Since the end of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, the White Sox have been station-to-station on the basepaths like the slow-pitch softball teams of 15-20 years ago, except they didn’t slug like those clubs.
So, the need to reimagine this roster and make changes is apparent to anyone with a pair of eyes and any level of awareness.
The problem is the Sox don’t have many moveable parts, and history has shown they struggle to bring in the right players when testing the open market.
The jokes about this team turning into the Chicago Royals write themselves at this point, and it’s going to be a tremendous annoyance as the winter rages on.
While I agree that the White Sox should emphasize improving defensively across the board and creating a roster that has more athleticism and versatility, Getz shouldn’t be attempting to replicate the 2015 Royals and their one-off championship, no matter how much this “brain trust” thinks it’s a good idea.
There should be a balance between building a team that isn’t one-dimensional and one that can win games based on how the sport has evolved into 2024 and beyond.
Should He Stay or Should He Go?
This brings us back to Eloy Jimenez. From Getz’s remarks, does anyone believe Jimenez fits the mold as the type of player that the GM wants to roster? Based on another recent quote, it sounds as if we already know the answer.
This seems like a pretty obvious way of publicly trying to drive up the price for a player you are looking to trade. It begs the question, does it make sense for the Sox to move on from Eloy?
Jimenez has one more guaranteed year on his deal at $13.8 million and options for 2025 and 2026. Does rostering him at his elevating salary move the needle for the White Sox as they try to dig themselves out of this seemingly insurmountable hole?
For his career, Jimenez has slashed .277/.324/.487 across 1,777 career plate appearances, posting 118 wRC+ and 89 home runs in parts of five seasons with the Pale Hose.
Honestly, this is a far cry from what we all anticipated when he arrived back in July of 2017 as the centerpiece of the Jose Quintana deal with that other team in town.
The overall plate approach has never really materialized for Jimenez outside of a couple-month stretch in 2022. For his career, he has a 6.5% BB rate to go with a 23.2% K rate, although that number fell to a career-low 19.0% this past season.
Given that he hasn’t shown a propensity to draw walks with consistency, the slugging needs to be there. For my money, there just hasn’t been enough consistency.
Since returning from his torn pectoral muscle sustained during Spring Training of 2021, Jimenez has a .458 SLG% in 1,047 PA. That’s just not enough.
When you provide no value defensively or on the bases (more on that to come), that slugging percentage HAS to start with a 5. Anything less than that simply isn’t going to cut it.
Butcher
On the defensive side of things, it was known since the time he was acquired that Eloy Jimenez wasn’t going to be a Gold Glove winner.
To be blunt, he’s been a danger to himself and everyone around him anytime he puts on a glove and stands in the outfield grass. The numbers highlight just how bad he’s been.
For his career, he has been a -19 Outs Above Average, which is Stat Cast’s defensive value metric. Jimenez peaked at 967 defensive innings during his rookie season of 2019 when he graded out at -12 OAA.
His defensive innings have declined every season since, bottoming out at 109 this past year. This is, again, a function of the constant injuries and inability to stay on the field that has plagued him since arriving at the corner of 35th/Shields.
So, we have a player who isn’t slugging enough and isn’t on the field much. And when he is, it’s a net negative defensively for the White Sox. That’s two strikes against Eloy.
On the basepaths, he is a -2 according to StatCast’s Runner Runs metric for his career.
This is a tool that is designed to help measure how well a player advances extra bases while excluding stolen bases.
Jimenez has seen a decline in his sprint speed over the last two seasons, which looks to be a function of persistent lower-body issues. Not only has the sprint speed declined objectively, but the eye test shows you that his instincts on the bases simply aren’t there.
So, we have a corner outfield/DH player who doesn’t slug consistently enough and is a considerable net negative with the glove and a below-average base runner. That seems like three strikes and you’re out to me. If Chris Getz holds true to his ideals of wanting multi-dimensional, athletic players on this roster, Jimenez clearly doesn’t fit the mold.
Separate Ways
If I were in Getz’s chair, I would move on from Eloy, personally. I understand there is risk in letting go of a player who is only 26 and has the tremendous raw power this team desperately needs. The problem is, we don’t see it enough. We saw a two-month burst in 2022, but outside of that Jimenez has not been the same guy since the end of the 2020 season with the bat, and the bat was the only facet of his game from which the White Sox were ever going to extract any value. If they can’t get enough to compensate for his deficiencies on the bases and with the glove, I don’t see how he will help this club by the time it is, theoretically, not awful anymore.
I think it would be prudent for Getz to move on from Jimenez this winter, given that the South Siders would get even less in return for their defensive liability, light power-hitting first baseman. So in this equation, Eloy has to be the odd man out. Any return the Sox get for Jimenez, I expect to be less than what the fan base believes it will be, as the value simply isn’t there.
Would it shock me if Eloy went to a new team and finally tapped into the massive raw power we’ve seen glimpses of? No, it wouldn’t at all. I just don’t see it happening with the White Sox. He could go elsewhere and blossom into the perennial 40-homer bat we thought he would be here, but the bloom is off the rose at the corner of 35th/Shields. It’s simply time to part ways.