To absolutely nobody’s surprise Eloy Jimenez is back on the injured list. The White Sox placed the 26-year-old designated hitter on the 10-day IL Wednesday with a low-grade left hamstring strain. He is estimated to miss 2-3 weeks.
White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said that Jimenez strained his hamstring running from first to third in the seventh inning of Monday’s game on Andrew Vaughn’s double. Jimenez said he felt well enough to take another at-bat. However, the White Sox let Hanser Alberto take his final at-bat instead after being brought in to pitch for Jose Ruiz amid a blowout.
Life without Eloy is nothing new for the White Sox. After playing a career-high 122 games in his rookie year, he missed two of the White Sox three Wild Card games in 2020 and had to leave Game 3 prematurely due to injury. He was limited to just 55 games in 2021 after tearing a left pectoral tear during Spring Training and then 84 in 2022 due to a torn hamstring tendon behind his right knee sustained while running the bases in April. This season it only took him five games before his first IL stint.
Out of the 546 MLB regular season games that the White Sox have played since calling up Jimenez prior to the 2019 season, he has appeared in just 232 of them. This means he has missed roughly 42 percent of the White Sox games in his first four seasons.
The sad truth is that losing Jimenez is not a blow to the White Sox lineup. It sounds strange since he is an elite hitter who can put up MVP-caliber numbers when healthy. But he is a luxury at this point who cannot be relied on to be a contributing member of a championship team because of his rich injury history.
It was fair to wonder if Jimenez was taking care of his body properly during the offseason. But this year, he showed up to Spring Training determined to play right field when the White Sox wanted to relegate him to DH full-time. He put his money where his mouth was during the offseason.
Jimenez showed up to camp down 25 pounds and looked leaner and faster than he ever has in a White Sox uniform. It was clear he had been taking care of his body. The White Sox also brought in a new staff which they hoped would combat some of their injury problems.
But none of this mattered for the injury-prone Jimenez.
“He’s in great shape, Pedro Grifol told reporters. “It’s just one of those things that happens, unfortunately. But the good thing is he came in, and he left strong. We’re extremely optimistic he’s going to be available for us here in the near future.”
His skill set is easily replaceable. You don’t need to be a Gold Glove defender to replicate what Jimenez provides to a lineup. All you need to do is hit.
While Jake Burger may not be able to produce at the same level a healthy Eloy Jimenez can, he can still hit for power and DH. The White Sox have plenty of those guys on the 40-man roster. Burger slashed .263/.300/.491 with four homers in 23 Cactus League games and .250/.302/.458 with nine doubles, eight home runs, and 26 RBIs on 51 games in the major leagues in 2022. He is more than capable of providing the White Sox with some offense.
Gavin Sheets is another guy who can hit for power, as evident by his double-digit home run totals in his first two years in the big leagues. Jimenez was batting .200 with two doubles and three RBIs. It should also be noted that Jimenez puts up his worst numbers during his first month of the season anyway. The only exception was during his rookie year when he batted .250 in April, then .182 in May.
The White Sox are so used to functioning without Jimenez that 2-3 weeks without him in April should be a cakewalk.
Along with Robert, the Disabled List Boppsey Twins. With Moncada and Grandal, make that quintuplets. Lucky to get half a season out of any of em.
He needs the Tim Grover treatment.
Maybe it would be best if the Sox sent him to the minors and just bring him up when needed for a few games, in case of an injury to a player. This guy can retire there. He is unreliable at the pro level.