Oh boy, this has not been a great offseason for the White Sox and especially not for Hector Gomez. A few days after reporting that the White Sox were close to signing star prospect Eloy Jiménez to an eight-year deal worth $100 million, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal refuted it, saying it is not accurate.
The report of the #WhiteSox and Eloy being close on 8-year, $100M deal is both inaccurate and unrealistic. Scott Kingery signed largest contract for a player who had yet to appear in majors – 6 yrs, $24M with 3 club options. Only other such deal: Jonathan Singleton (5 yrs, $10M).
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) March 15, 2019
Here’s what Gomez reported earlier in the week.
SOURCE: OF Eloy Jimenez would be close to reaching a $100 million, eight-year contract extension with the Chicago White Sox, keeping baseball's Top Prospect under club control through 2026.#ZDigital #ZDeportes @z101digital @ZDeportes
— Héctor Gómez (@hgomez27) March 14, 2019
That was on the same day the White Sox officially optioned Jiménez down to Triple-A for the start of the regular season. Jiménez will be in Charlotte for a couple weeks before he gets called up by the White Sox in the middle of April. The delay is so that the White Sox can get an extra year of control before Jiménez can become a free agent.
So, the initial report by Gomez just didn’t seem right from the start, plus the White Sox have never given out a $100 million contract ever, they were going to start with a prospect who hasn’t taken one MLB at-bat yet?
Not the best look for Gomez, who was adamant throughout the offseason that Manny Machado was going to sign with the White Sox. He maintained that thought even after the Padres came into the picture and had reportedly offered more than the White Sox.
At the end, the Padres did offer more guaranteed money and the White Sox were left in the dust. Gomez did correctly report Chicago’s initial contract offer to Machado that was eight years for $250 million.
Yet, this deal with Jiménez appears to be nothing but a false rumor.
However, Gomez is sticking to his story and backing up his source.
Time will tell if my source is right or not. The same happened with my report of the #WhiteSox's offer to Manny Machado for 8-years, $250 million.
They tried to deny it and then it was found that the offer was real. https://t.co/dTt2dvnjGT
— Héctor Gómez (@hgomez27) March 15, 2019
I guess, we’ll see, but no matter what Eloy will be with the White Sox through at least 2025.