NEW YORK — When Eloy Jiménez awoke on the day of the trade deadline, he had no expectation of going anywhere other than Guaranteed Rate Field.
And can you blame him? After all, Jiménez’s recent past has been marked by injury and poor performance, and considering that he offers little in terms of defensive or base running value, his bat has to supply his worth. Yet teams don’t usually line up to trade for supposed power hitters who hadn’t put one over the fence in well over a month before deadline day.
Any interest in his services would come solely for what he’d done in years past. This season, he’s been a shell of the hitter who once appeared to be a perennial All-Star in the making.
In the waning hours before 6 p.m. ET on July 30, eyes were on whether the White Sox would trade All-Star Luis Robert Jr. or budding ace Garret Crochet. So it was a shock to everyone when, 15 minutes before the deadline, news broke that Jiménez was the one on the move, heading to the Baltimore Orioles.
“I was kind of excited, but a little bit sad because of all the memories that I have with the White Sox and the city. I’ve been there forever,” Jiménez said of the trade. “But I got here, tried to do my best to help the team. I’m happy.
“We have a little bit of everything,” he said of his new team. “A lot of young spirit. That’s good when you have this group of guys with a lot of talent and a lot of energy. That’s what you want when you arrive at a team.”
The 27-year-old is something of a veteran on a team full of young stars. He’s been through the ups and downs in a way that few in that clubhouse have, which can be helpful in a room full of players still experiencing many firsts.
“I think he’s going to be a huge part of this team,” said rookie infielder Livan Soto. “And for me, he’s already been a huge help. Giving me advice. I know he’s done that for other guys as well.”
But in many ways, this two-month stint with the Orioles is an opportunity for Jiménez to prove himself to a sport that will be rightfully skeptical of his long-term value. With free agency likely around the corner, he needs to show he still wields the kind of power bat that bashed 31 home runs in his rookie season of 2019.
His start with the Orioles has been solid — batting .295 with a .667 OPS, showing contact ability but not yet power. Still, it’s certainly a step up from his .240 average in 65 games with the White Sox this year. Just not enough to declare the trade, or his turnaround, a success. Yet.
“I think he’s done a good job,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “We felt like we needed help against left-handed pitching, and hopefully Eloy could provide that. … His presence in the batter’s box is the most important thing. He’s hit and he’s hit for power. He’s working on that right now, and getting his legs underneath him.”
Jiménez was a key piece of the what-could-have-been White Sox. Their stacked 2021 roster mirrored the present-day Orioles. A club full of young, under-team-control talent that looked like it would dominate its division annually.
He finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting in 2019, when he posted an .828 OPS. Then he won a Silver Slugger in the shortened 2020 season.
Then, everything started to fall apart. Jiménez tore his pectoral muscle in the spring of 2021. He tore his right hamstring the year after. Then he had appendicitis in 2023. This year, he had an adductor strain in March and a left hamstring injury in May.
White Sox fans became deeply frustrated at his lack of availability. They didn’t like what were perceived to be elongated recovery times. His slow runs to first base made for bad optics, even if they were necessary to preserve his health. And it all came against the backdrop of a ball club in decline.
“This is a joyous day,” NBC White Sox analyst Ryan McGuffey said on the team-owned network’s trade-deadline special. “That guy is as catastrophic of a failure as any player that’s come through the rebuild. I can’t believe a team would take him on.”
The comment was cruel. But as the White Sox flirt with the worst season in MLB history, it spoke to the fracture between Jiménez and the city he’d long called home.
“At the end of the day, I know what I’m doing,” Jiménez said. “I know I work my ass off every single day. I know I tried to improve my body every single day. I don’t feel good when I’m injured, everyone knows that. But at the end of the day, people are going to talk anyway. I just tried to not pay attention to that.”
There is something broken with the White Sox. No team gets to 31-103 without many things being severely wrong. Their team is populated with players who, like Jiménez, are underperforming their career standards.
Baltimore, on the other hand, offers a full 180 on vibes. And Jiménez feels the difference.
“Everybody tries to do something here, and tries to help you in many ways,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that the guys in a White Sox uniform aren’t trying to help. But it’s just that here, it feels different.”
“You see the energy he brings every single day,” Hyde said. “A lot of us have known him for a long time. Sometimes you get out of a situation, get into a winning atmosphere, a winning club. Hopefully that gives a guy a boost. I think it’s been helpful.”
This is far from a happily-ever-after story. While Jiménez is getting on base at a higher clip thus far, he has yet to hit a home run. In fact, it’s been a staggering 195 plate appearances since Jiménez last hit a long ball. For his career, the slugger has hit a homer every 22 plate appearances.
It’s part of a trend of concerning metrics for Jiménez.
Yes, Baltimore is now a notoriously difficult place for right-handed pull hitters to go yard. But Jiménez used to be a better all-fields hitter. He’s hitting to the opposite field just 17 percent of the time this year. His career average is 24 percent.
He’s also hitting the ball on the ground 59 percent of the time, well above his career average. The MLB average is only 44.5 percent. All of these warning signs could be dealbreakers for potential future suitors if things don’t improve quickly before year’s end.
For Baltimore, the Jiménez acquisition was low risk, and potentially high reward. The White Sox effectively paid Baltimore $4 million to take on Jiménez, getting a low-level minor-league reliever as their return. In exchange, the Orioles take on Jiménez’s $1.5 million buyout.
He has club options the next two years. Next season at $16.5 million. The year after at $18.5 million. Understandably, he would love for those to be picked up.
“I want to be,” a smiling Jiménez said when asked about remaining an Oriole long-term. “But at the end of the day, that’s not my choice.”
That answer seemingly captures the implicit understanding of what comes next for him. He’s an Oriole … for now. This has the makings of a potentially short honeymoon. His impending reality is quickly approaching.
Common sense suggests that Baltimore declines the team option. That will leave him as a free agent whose accomplished resume is littered with reasons for skepticism.
Sitting at his locker, early in the morning, hours before a game last week, it seems clear that Jiménez understands two things.
One, that he’s in a good spot, a better spot.
The other? That he could be arriving at a career inflection point. And how he performs the remainder of this season will be critical to what comes next.
“I’ve been happy with the performance, but I know I have more in me,” Jiménez said. “This is a process. … I consider myself a hitter, but at the same time, a power hitter too.”
(Top photo of Eloy Jiménez: Cole Burston / Getty Images)
