Eloy Jiménez was once one of the top prospects in all of baseball coming up through the White Sox system, regarded as a foundational piece for a core of would-be White Sox future stars.
On Monday, he signed a minor-league contract with the Tampa Bay Rays, according to MLB.com.
Jiménez, who rose as high as No. 3 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 prospect list prior to the 2019 season while in the White Sox system, is trying to resurrect a once-promising career derailed by injuries and unmet expectations.
The White Sox traded Jiménez to the Baltimore Orioles at last season’s trade deadline, but the one-time slugger hit just one homer, drove in seven runs and recorded a paltry .586 OPS in 100 plate appearances with Baltimore. He was not on the Orioles’ roster for their Wild Card series with the Kansas City Royals, in which they were swept in two games.
Jiménez became a free agent after the Orioles declined his $16.5 million club option for 2025.
According to MLB.com, a source told its Mark Feinsand that Jiménez agreed to a minor-league deal with the Rays on Monday. The team had not confirmed the deal, MLB.com reported.
Unfilled promise
In many ways, Jiménez is symbolic of an entire White Sox era of unfilled promise. The franchise thought it had put together a talented core of young stars, only to have it all bottom out by 2024 with an MLB Modern Era-record 121 losses.
At the moment, only Luis Robert Jr. remains on the active roster from that once-promising group of prospects.
Jiménez, who hails from the Dominican Republic, was actually signed by the Cubs as an amateur free agent in 2013. He was dealt to the White Sox, along with Dylan Cease, in the famous 2017 deadline trade in which the Cubs acquired Jose Quintana.
Jiménez signed a six-year, $43 million contract extension with the White Sox in March 2019, which made him just the third player ever to sign an extension before making his MLB debut.
Jiménez did make his big-league debut in 2019 and seemed well on his way to stardom, belting 31 homers, driving in 79 runs and posting an .828 OPS in 504 plate appearances. He finished fourth in American League Rookie of the Year voting.
Jiménez followed that up during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season by hitting 14 homers in just 55 games and posting an .891 OPS to held lead the White Sox to a playoff berth.
The White Sox then won the AL Central title in 2021, but Jiménez was limited to just 55 games that season. He would exceed 100 games played just once during his White Sox career after that, his OPS slipping down to .642 during his 65 games with the team in 2024 before being traded.
Once an outfielder, Jiménez is now essentially a full-time designated hitter due to his injuries and defensive shortcomings, so his value to any roster is limited if he’s not producing power numbers.