Here we go. The animus from White Sox slugger-prospect Eloy Jimenez camp has begun. Fancred’s Jon Heyman reported that Jimenez’s pair of agents are not happy with the organization’s choice to play the service-time game and are considering filing a grievance.
“How can you say with a straight face this guy needs to work on anything?” said Paul Kinzer, the president of Rep1 baseball agency and half of Jimenez’s agent team. “What’s he need to work on?”
I mean, he ain’t wrong. The reality is that Kinzer has nary a leg to stand on in this argument. Rick Hahn and other White Sox brass are playing the game that Major League Baseball has established in order to maximize their cost/control ratio as long as they can.
Every organization does it and Kinzer’s rancorous pronouncements about Jimenez being held down because of service time sounds like an old man yelling at clouds. The same thing happened Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant, Braves outfielder Ronald Ocuna Jr. and Phillies third baseman Maikel Franco as they approached a big league promotion. And Heyman adds that no team has even publicly admitted that service time factored into promotional decisions.
The union and league agreed to these terms and there is little cause for any grievance, yet the grievance process is the only available recourse to players. Bryant and Franco’s agents followed through on filing objections with the league and their outcomes are still pending.
Still, Jimenez’s agents continued shouting:
“I don’t see what boxes he needs to check to be called up … except for service time,” said Jimenez’s other agent Nelson Montes De Oca, referencing the now infamous checklist.
Heyman tried to break the impenetrable media-firewall of the White Sox front office by texting Rick Hahn, but was met with glib rhetoric.
“I’ve really got nothing to add to what I have already said on this numerous times. I’ll discuss it again when we make an announcement as to our plan for the remainder of the season.”
The last part of that statement is interesting. It seems the Sox plan to make an announcement on Jimenez’s future soon.
Still, Jimenez’s representative continued blasting the organization’s decision to hold Eloy back, even saying there is “no reason for optimism.”
“Especially with elite players like Eloy and Vlad Jr. (the Jays’ top prospect who’s hitting a ton at Triple-A), that’s the nature of the business,’” Kinzer said. “It’s not about the money. It’s the extra year of control.”
This is unequivocally true and White Sox fans (at least some) have been trying to make the case that the Sox will extend Jimenez and others before they hit free agency, and that fact alone requires that the organization promote Jimenez. But there it is in black and white (well, red) — it’s about control.
“There’s more money in baseball than ever, and players are getting a smaller and smaller piece,” the agent said. “They’re getting guys at one end – OK, I see some rationale when players are older – but they’re getting guys on the other end, too. The only option is to play it out, and hopefully get a (Giancarlo) Stanton/(Mike) Trout type deal … if you’re a budding superstar.”
One can only hope we end up with a Mike Trout or Giancarlo Stanton on our squad.
Monte De Oca explained that Jimenez penned the Player’s Tribune piece without the assistance or oversight of his advisors and added that Jimenez is unaware of what the organization ultimately wants to see before he is called up.
This isn’t altogether surprising. Players aren’t’ typically looped into such planning within the organization, at least anything in great detail. Certain areas of improvement are identified, but nothing as specific as “if you lace a double past five outfielders we will promote you.”
And so, Jimenez’s agents seem to be moving in the direction of a grievance, however fruitless it may ultimately be. In my opinion, this sounds like the greedy pockets of agents that want extensions and mega deals in free agency to come one year sooner.
As for me, I’m okay with waiting until the second week of April 2019 to see Jimenez for an extra season in Chicago.
