Eloy Jimenez Optioned to Triple-A as Struggles Continue

Eloy Jimenez was once viewed as a potential core piece of a championship-caliber team. Now he is struggling to stay in the major leagues. On Tuesday the Baltimore Orioles announced that Jimenez was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk. It’s a massive fall from grace for the 2020 Silver Slugger Award Winner, who has struggled to find consistent success since. 

Jimenez kicked off the 2024 season with just five home runs in 249 plate appearances with a .642 OPS, his worst in a White Sox uniform. After slashing .240/.297/.345 through 65 games the White Sox traded him to Baltimore. 

But it appears that not even a change of scenery was enough to fix Jimenez. He struck out in 23 of his 100 plate appearances and hit .232 with a .586 OPS and one home run in 33 games. His chase rate, walk rate, and speed all rank near the bottom of the MLB. Jimenez has had some bad luck as well. His 49 percent hard-hit percentage places him in the top ten percent of the league, with little to show for it.  The Orioles used him exclusively at DH, a position Jimenez has previously come out and said he doesn’t like. Unfortunately for the 27-year-old, his resume doesn't give him much of a choice. 

It’s sad to see the once fun-loving player fall off like this. Jimenez had a promising debut season with the White Sox in 2019, leading all AL rookies with 31 home runs. He followed that up by slashing .296/.332/.559 with 14 homers and 41 RBIs during the 55 games he played in 2020. Since then has struggled to stay healthy and his power has evaporated. 

In 2023 Jimenez logged his most games (120) since his rookie year (122).  However, he had 13 fewer home runs, 15 fewer RBIs, and a slugging percentage that dropped from .513 to .441. His barrel percentage and hard-hit percentage also dropped. Jimenez did post a higher batting average but the White Sox were paying him to hit home runs and 18 on the year with just 64 RBIs didn’t cut it. 

In 2023 he had a career-low 9.3 barrel percentage, 26.0 sweet spot percentage, 46.8 hard hit percentage, and a .421 expected slugging percentage. These numbers suggest that Jimenez was having some issues with his timing. 

Jimenez’s sole purpose on the White Sox roster is to produce runs since he has proved to be a liability defensively. Given Jimenez’s well-documented injury history, the White Sox moved him from his primary role in left field to designated hitter. 

Jimenez was vocal about not wanting to be a DH and even tried to win the starting job in right field during Spring Training. Pedro Grifol gave him some opportunities in right field and while the defensive numbers were not nearly as bad as they were when he was in left field they still left a lot to be desired. Jimenez has a career -19 Outs Above Average. In 2023 he had a -1 OAA in right field. To his credit, he did not commit an error in right field. However, his lack of arm strength allowed base runners to advance on balls hit to him at a higher clip than the league average. 

Seeing that his offensive production has taken a dip and he is a liability on defense it is hard to see a very robust market for Jimenez’s services this offseason.