The White Sox recently sent down top prospect Eloy Jimenez to Triple-A Charlotte. This should come as a surprise to no one, as the team wants to maximize the control they have over him. By stashing him in Charlotte until the middle of April, the White Sox can gain an extra year of control, similar to what the Cubs did with Kris Bryant, and what the Blue Jays are currently doing with Vlad Jr.
However, a report just came out stating that the White Sox and Eloy’s camp are already in discussions for a contract extension.
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
Gomez is sort of infamous throughout White Sox twitter currently because of his recent reports regarding Manny Machado. While he was wrong in his assumption that he would land with the White Sox, the deal he claimed the team offered was actually spot on.
If this report comes to fruition, then it is a win/win for both parties. Eloy gets the biggest contract in franchise history, (without even taking a big league AB…pretty crazy), while the White Sox get him in his prime years for cheap. If Eloy hits his ceiling, he’ll get around 25M/year in his arbitration years. Imagine getting MVP type production at half of that.
If there’s one thing Rick Hahn is good at, it’s getting his best players to agree to team-friendly deals. Chris Sale, Adam Eaton, Jose Quintana, Jose Abreu, and Tim Anderson are all recent examples of this.
If Hahn can reel in Eloy early, not only would it be good for both parties from a logistics standpoint, but it would also put Eloy in good faith with the team. With the way some players have been getting lowballed lately, the importance of this cannot be understated.
I’ll be honest, I’m not 100% sure how the team control would differ, if at all if this deal gets done. I feel like he’d be able to debut with Chicago on Opening Day, but again, I’m not totally sure on how that part of it works. This is strictly about the money side of things. Being able to have arguably your best player for 8 years at 12.5M/year is an absolute steal. Hopefully this report becomes a reality in the coming days.
