For Chris Getz’s second move of the day, according to Jeff Passan, he has reportedly traded Eloy Jimenez to the Baltimore Orioles.
This comes as a bit of a shock, as it was unclear if any teams were interested in Eloy’s services, as he isn’t having a great season. While he has been injured for a good chunk of the season and seemingly still battling through something, he is hitting .240 with five homers and 16 RBIs in 229 at-bats. He has hit the ball much harder as of late, so that could have played a part in the Orioles showing interest.
Still just 27 years old, Jimenez hasn’t been able to recreate his rookie season in which he hit 31 homeruns for the White Sox. In his following five seasons with the White Sox, he has only mustered a high of 18 homeruns. While most of that is due to his plethora of injuries, he hasn’t lived up to the hype he had as a top prospect, even when healthy.
According to Bob Nightengale and Francys Romero, the move comes as a more of a salary dump, as the White Sox were just looking to move off of Eloy’s contract. By all indications, it was a forgone conclusion that the White Sox were going to exercise the three million dollar buyout in his contract at the end of the season, so it impressive that the White Sox were able to get anything out of the deal.
As Bob Nightengale notes, the White Sox will be receiving reliever Trey McGough from the Orioles. McGough is currently in AAA for Baltimore, where he has a 1.99 ERA in 28 games. In 54.1 innings, he has 54 strikeouts and a .99 WHIP.
Since he is 26 years old, he could make his major league debut in the coming weeks with the White Sox, as they will be looking to add more arms to the bullpen.
This is a smart move by the White Sox, as it seems that they took the best offer for Eloy. Instead of buying him out in the offseason and making him a free agent, they took a flier on a relief pitcher with solid numbers. The White Sox should have tried to do that with Tim Anderson last year, so it seems that they learned from their mistake.
This trade ends an era of a six year White Sox tenure for Eloy, as he will now take his talents to Baltimore. Eloy was a lively presence in the dugout and on the field and by all indications was a very good guy. We wish him nothing but the best of luck in Baltimore.
