In his latest column for The Athletic, Ken Rosenthal went to bat for promotions of White Sox phenom Eloy Jimenez and the Bue Jays’ Vladamir Guerrero Jr. Rosenthal argues that withholding a promotion for Jimenez and Guerrero Jr. is anathema to a fan-friendly experience.
“Teams try to exploit the game’s economic system in every way possible,” Rosenthal writes “and roster and service-time considerations sometimes override what should be merit-based promotions. The short-term result in the cases of Guerrero and Jimenez: Fans in Chicago and Toronto are being robbed of the excitement created this season by rookie sensations Ronald Acuna in Atlanta and Juan Soto in Washington.”
This may be what sent Jimenez’s agents off the deep end. Rosenthal writes that keeping premium talent in the minors to hold onto precious years in a player’s prime is a slight to fans and the game, and while I agree that bringing up the best talent as quickly as possible is more entertaining, Jimenez was not an automatic and easy promotion this season to begin with.
Jimenez was only in High-A last season, started this season in Double-A and in 50 contests in Triple-A he is tearing the cover off the ball. Other players have taken meteoric trips through the minors, but it makes perfect sense for the White Sox to let Jimenez get a few more weeks in Triple-A while preserving his major-league service time. I’ve been saying it since January and I still believe it is the right decision regardless of service time.
But, as Jimenez’s advisors pointed out to Jon Heyman, it’s becoming obvious to many around baseball that the White Sox and others are suppressing talent as a business-savvy move.
“Jimenez is on the White Sox’s 40-man roster,” Rosenthal continues, “so the only reason not to promote him would be to limit his service time in an attempt to delay his eligibility for free agency.”
NOT inaccurate. And quite frankly I don’t have a problem with this. I understand why the organization is making this move and for all the aforementioned reasons, I agree with it. Had the White Sox been in a wild-card race I would feel much, MUCH differently. But next season is more important than this season.
We knew this going into it: the rebuild was going to take time and we had to exercise patience. We should all be okay with sacrificing one month to get an entire year of Eloy Jimenez. Who knows? That year could be the year he brings a World Series back to the White Sox.