In what has been a widely anticipated move, the White Sox announced Wednesday that they’ve optioned top outfield prospect Eloy Jimenez to Triple-A Charlotte. The move was one of nine spring cuts by the ChiSox, who also optioned out top pitching prospect Dylan Cease, catcher Seby Zavala and outfielder Micker Adolfo.
Jimenez, 22, is not only considered to be among the game’s premier prospects but is also largely believed to be ready for MLB action. The Dominican-born slugger obliterated Double-A and Triple-A pitching in 2018, posting ridiculous slash lines of .317/.368/.556 and .355/.399/.597 at those respective levels.
Jimenez’s demotion will stand out as one of the more blatant examples of service time manipulation this spring, as the decision to send him to Triple-A is surely motivated more by the desire to gain an extra season of club control over the player rather than to further his development. This year’s regular season is 186 days long, and a player would gain a full season of MLB service by spending 172 of those days at the MLB level (be it on the active roster or the injured list). In other words, by keeping Jimenez in the minors for just 15 days, the Sox will be able to control him for seven seasons as opposed to the six seasons for which they’d control him by bringing him to the Majors to open the year.
It’s a maddening and counter-intuitive side effect of a system that has prompted pundits, players, agents and fans to call for change. For a team in the White Sox’ situation — unlikely to contend this season but optimistic that their ongoing rebuild is nearing the finish line — it makes perfect sense from a business standpoint to trade two weeks of Jimenez in a noncompetitive season for a full extra year of control over a potential premium player. For Jimenez, however, the current structure of service time and free agency delays his path to his most significant potential payday, while the fans are asked to accept that their team won’t bring the 25 best players in camp north to open the season. It’s a system in which there’s arguably no true winner, as the even White Sox’ front office will surely face a negative wave of backlash from fans and onlookers.
For the time being, Jimenez will be asked to continue honing his skills in the minors. Perhaps the Sox will opt not to call him up on the very first day on which he’d fall a year shy of big league service, using the delay as a means of further claiming that the move was a developmental decision rather than one driven by service time. It’s likely that they’ll point to Jimenez’s .154/.154/.346 slash in Spring Training as justification of the move, though few would find it plausible that 26 spring plate appearances are more indicative of MLB readiness than the 456 PAs during which Jimenez laid waste to minor league pitching in 2018. Furthermore, the move would surely have happened regardless of his performance; the White Sox, after all, declined to give Jimenez a September call-up in 2018 despite his aforementioned mastery of minor league pitching and despite the fact that he was already on the 40-man roster.
Regardless of the specific timing, it seems quite likely that Jimenez will be in the Majors very early in the 2019 campaign. Cease and the others who were sent out aren’t as far along in their development and will be on a more uncertain timeline to the big leagues.
To be fair to the White Sox, they’re far from the only club to take this route. The Braves held back Ronald Acuna’s promotion to the Majors last season under similarly dubious circumstances, while others who’ve been subject to this form of service time manipulation include Kris Bryant and Maikel Franco (among many others). It was a foregone conclusion that the Blue Jays would send Vladimir Guerrero Jr. down to the minors in the exact same fashion, though Guerrero’s recent oblique injury actually gave the Toronto organization a legitimate reason to do so.
PretendsToBeShocked.gif
not to be that guy, but he was batting .154 in ST
Bryant had an OPS of about 1.400 the year that the manipulated his service time.
The article isn’t about Bryant. Everyone knows Bryant’s was manipulated.
If the players union and the owners agreed that 171 days in the big leagues would game the team an additional year of control, what is manipulating when they do that?
The players union said that it was OK to do that. They signed off on it. I don’t understand why people think that this is manipulating the system when it is the exact system they agreed to
If even the owners thought it was OK, they wouldn’t bother lying.
The MLB is not acting in good faith to the CBA. Teams are not supposed to keep players down for service time reasons but as long as the team lies and says they have other reasons, there isn’t much the players can do about it. It’s manipulation because the teams are being dishonest and not honoring the spirit of the rules in the CBA.
And Bryant got over it. Time to move on.
By this time next year. Bryant will be offered his first extension of at least 9/245 whether he accepts remains to be seen. Make no mistake about it. The Cubs will spare no expense to keep Bryant. And if they need too theyll offer him 300 mil
Yeah, but it was just in comparison to what the White Sox did and were expected to do.
It’s just business. If the union doesn’t like it, have them change the rules.
Sky nail;ed it. They agreed face to face to not manipulate service time. WS can always say his slow spring was the reason but the entire world knows what the deal is.
The “spirit of the law” may help you to avoid a traffic ticket, but it’s the Letter of the Law when dealing with very large sums of $$. There is no such thing as “The Spirit of Contract Law”.
Wait, Steve said it’s maddening. We have to stomp our feet in anger because a 22 year old isn’t given a spot on the 25 man roster. Grrrrrr
Troll or real? If troll, it was a bad attempt. If real, it was also a bad attempt…
Can I be that guy who asks when ST stats became meaningful in any way?
You can, but why would you want to be?
because i frankly like being that guy
Nice to meet you, Frank. I’m Mike lol
Wow, you’re cool
Yeah it’s almost like the writer didn’t bother looking up his ST stats….154/.154/.346 with 9 K’s/0 walks in 26 PA’s. Had Eloy tore it up like Bryant then it would an obvious manipulation of service. Eloy simply looked over matched.
@bigblumpkin Actually, the writer stated the ST stats, but you already knew that. If his 26 ST plate appearances hold so much value, his 400+ PA from last year must have been crazy valuable. If that’s the case, why wasn’t he called up last June?
He IS slashing .154/.154/.500
@darkside830 and @swangaust
exactly. he wasn’t exactly tearing up ST pitching. It’s justifiable.
Idk… spring stats don’t mean much. It’s more about working on things and getting yourself ready for the season. Sure there are positional battles and sometimes the guy who performs better wins. But teams don’t place high importance on spring stats. .500 slugging looks really nice, but lack of walks does not.
However, I do believe that young guys shouldn’t make their debut on opening day. Not because of service time, but spending a few weeks against minor league pitching will boost the confidence and they can ride a hot streak right into their debut. There’s a lot less pressure that way and it’ll be easier to build on, which is really what it’s all absolutely: making sure these young guys are developed properly.
RIght. Plus, the White Sox are absolutely loaded in the OF with future All-Stars Daniel Palka, Jon Jay, Adam Engel, and Ryan Cordell.
Future All-Star Jon Jay? The guy is 33 and while I like the guy I can’t see I see trip to the All-Star game in his future. He’s never posted above 75 runs or RBIs and while his average is good he certainly doesn’t have any pop. Love the guy he seems a tad out of place.
Someone doesn’t get sarcasm
You honestly singled out Jon Jay out of his list, which is probably the MOST recognizable player he mentioned?
The fact he only queued John Jay made it even funnier!
Pretty sure that was a joke lol
Dwight K. Schrute doesn’t like sarcasm.
Swept right past them. 🙂
Slow down Dwight.
vtadave: You neglected future White Sox All-Star OF’s Nicky Delmonico and Leury Garcia from your list! They also figure to make the opening day roster over Ryan Cordell who will have to settle for the AAA All-Star team instead.
Hahaha
@southbeach If these ST stats justify keeping him down, why didn’t last year’s stats justify a promotion to the show? I bet scouts thought he was ready by the end of May.
Im not saying he DOESN’T belong. we all know what the likely reasons are but they can defend their position ny pointing to a poor ST showing and the logic that he might benefit by building his confidence in AAA and thhem getting the call up. Years of control aside, it happens all the time for all the right reason.
You guys citing his ST stats are a bunch of fools! If he was called up last year, as he should have been, this ST performance BS wouldn’t even be relevant.
Nobody’s saying he shouldn’t be in the MLB because of his Spring Training stats, we’re just saying the White Sox have an excuse.
just because there’s always a painfully transparent excuse doesn’t make it any less ridiculous
if there’s a legit excuse then that’s it. nuff said. if a vet looking for a job can be released for a poor ST then so can a rookie who’s never faced mlb pitching
Since when do vets get cut based on ST performance?? I’m sorry, but that doesn’t happen. Vets get cut if their performance sucked prior to ST and their performance during ST indicates they will not improve.
I could go to MLB Spring Training and slag that low @$$ line. I think homeboy has some kinks to work out. Even if it weren’t for service-time’s sake, I would definitely send him down to work on things. Sole guys just get to the majors and can’t hack it swinging at elite level MLB pitching. Hopefully (for Sox fans) this isn’t the case, but who knows.
**slash not slag
**Some not sole
Does anyone else notice the auto-correct on this app is brutal and unforgiving, or is it just me? Damn. Lol.
In fairness, that fact doesn’t fit with the writer’s obvious bias about this subject. Steve Adams is a very good writer, but he has made no secret of hating this practice. Everybody has certain issues that they are passionate about and cannot be impartial about.
i mean, is there any defense for it beyond “the system is broken and everybody does it’?
It’s like 15 games, its the white Sox.. who cares? It’s not like anyone would have watched him.
“Oooo, its maddening. . The team gets one more year of control before he gets richer by free agency.” Really?
it’s more ‘a team knowingly puts a worse product on the field to save money because they know they can get away with it’… and because once again the player, who is doing the hard work to make that money, is getting hosed while they do it.
but yeah, who cares? it’s not like acceptance of this has made it endemic to baseball or anything….
Fantastic post Steve. Strongly agree with everything. He had nothing left to prove and is a much better all-round player right now than Jon Jay and Daniel Palka, the White Sox’s projected COFs right now. The White Sox should not be allowed to do this, or there should be no reward for the White Sox for doing this. They can’t even hide behind the “well his D and baserunning need more work” lie this time. Eloy is MLB right this second, spring training stats are utterly meaningless so don’t even go there…
Come on, every year teams send the top MLB-ready prospects to the minors to gain an extra year of control. How is this at all surprising to you? Don’t blame the team, blame the system.
Pretty sure he didn’t blame the White Sox
He did though.
Read. He blamed the fact they have the right to do it and are being rewarded. The simple fact he mentions the white Sox in this instant doesn’t mean it doesn’t apply to the situation as a whole being problematic.
They don’t have to hide behind a lie. 1-The players allowed this in the CBA 2- CHI isn’t expected to compete, it’s stupid for anyone to think that they should play him right away when a mere 14 days in the minors gives them a 7th season of control. As a Marlins fan, I’d like to see them do this with every prospect, this way i get to see them play a little longer for them before they are inevitably traded
Ummmm….. do players get invited to ST and then get cut because they didn’t perform? answers yes so you can’t say it doesn’t matter. it doesn’t determine your future but it might delay when you make the debut. makes perfect sense. now if he destroyed pitching in ST then you have a better case that’s less defensible.
In the main, everybody’s just making too much about the service time manipulations. Ya, I get that growing up, a team’s Opening Day roster meant a lot. But now, it really doesn’t mean much at all. August 1 rosters mean a whole lot more than April 1 ones do.
No doubt the system could use improvement, but I’d much rather see the reality that lower level minor leaguers need SNAP benefits in order to eat changed. White Sox fans will see Eloy soon enough.
This is an expected, understandable, wise and prudent decision by the White Sox management.
Exactly.15 days for 1 full season is a no brainer.
According to Steve Adam’s, its “maddening”. Way to overreact steve.
Well it kind of is. Everybody understands why teams do it, it’s just a terrible rule the MLB has which will be fixed in the next CBA.
How is it “maddening”? The White Sox fans have to wait 15 games before they see him play in the majors. In doing so, they get an entire year of him in his prime. The White Sox fans should be beyond happy.
Maybe Steve is upset because his Yankees won’t be able to buy him soon enough?
Because 6 years is already a long time for free agency and the teams are trying to squeeze as much employment out them as possible.
From a player stand point it can be maddening. If you’re good enough to be on a teams billboard highlighting the upcoming season but be told to ride the shuttle for another few weeks it’s frustrating teams aren’t putting the best team out from day one. It’s exactly another example of teams not putting the best product out there.
No one is decrying management that it isn’t smart. It’s just an unfortunate way the system is set up for players.
It’s also cheap and manipulative and utterly moronic that the rules make it the only rational decision the Sox could have made…
We’ll see how prudent this decision was when it comes time for Eloy Jimenez to become a free agent. The same can be said for Kris Bryan with the Cubs.
At least the White Sox have a strong history of signing their most talented young players to team friendly contract extensions well before they hit free agency, sometime even before they reach arbitration eligibility. This worked out well for them when it came time to deal Chris Sale, Jose Quintana and Adam Eaton to kickstart their recent rebuild. The White Sox also signed current core SS Tim Anderson to such a deal.
It remains to be seen if they can do likewise with Jimenez who may have hard feelings, the same that Bryant may be harboring with the Cubs. Of course, Bryant also has Scott Boras as his agent, a rep who is less inclined to guide his young players in that direction. Bryant has reportedly already turned down a contract extension from the Cubs and doesn’t figure to be signing a team friendly deal anytime soon with his free agency looming in three years.
Really surprised they didn’t fix this issue in the last CBA. That was after the thing with Kris Bryant.
What would happen if 15 days from now CHI called him up and he refused to go? Saying “I think I need more work on my defense at the minor league level.”
Cool, then enjoy your minor league paycheck…
I think the $21,000 a week raise he will get when he graduates to MLB is enough to quiet any concerns of this scenario becoming reality.
I’m sure he needs to work on his defense…..
It’s the injured list, not the disabled list. Have a heart.
Beware the unintended consequences of changing the criteria to determine a full season of eligibility. Just like the players were “incensed” over the Type A FAs requiring a first round draft pick as compensation a couple of years ago, what replaced that now has literally hundreds of players getting NO offers or having to go to camp and earn a big league job for a little bit of nothing in salary.
Should the players cause a fuss over the number of days required to qualify for a full season of MLB service time, it will result in a player remaining in the minors for one, two, three months instead of 15 days—just watch.
What the players SHOULD campaign for is a change to the entire FA process. In return for capping length of contracts at say 5 years, thet will play for whatever teams want to pay (above the minimum) for two years, then two years of arbitration eligibility to be followed by free agency after FOUR years service time. This way, more players will get healthy five year deals while in their prime. But like the MLBPA screwed it up in the last CBA negotiation, they’ll do it again when dickering for the next agreement. Gone are the days when the smartest negotiators worked for the players. Now, they work for the owners, with dolts emplyes by the union.
File a grievance
As a Sox fan I understand the gripe, but that extra year man.
Reduce control to 5 years.
4 years with restrictive FA 5th, and start clock once they hit 40-man roster.
CBA is the problem, not the White Sox. Don’t expect teams to be one iota better than they absolutely have to be. Union messed this issue up, and it needs to be top of the agenda next time around. In terms of pure earning power, one year later in FA means one more year with an arb salary, and, given how this last couple of off-seasons go, some serious time lopped off the back of his free agent contract.
Only thing I’m hoping for here is the GM respects my intelligence enough not to give some flimsy excuse the way the Blue Jay’s constantly are.
When MLB players give up guaranteed money then, and only then, would I agree as an owner to stop the service time manipulation. If owners could buy out injured or unproductive players for a fraction of their contract, then I could see an end to service time shenanigans. Players can’t have it all.
The players will give them that when the end the whole concept of automatic control and the amateur draft.
Owners can’t have it all…
100% right
This type of business profit model is going to be one of several legitimate reasons the fans may lose an entire season to a player strike trying to redress the power balance between capital and labor.
Hey, Steve if the MLBTR gig ever goes south , then you could be a cheerleader for the players. Oh. Wait. You already are.
why shouldn’t he be? the players are the one that make baseball interesting…
or are you going to one of those people who claims to watch baseball for the occasional shot of some rich old white dude watching from his private skybox?
Yeah, Steve, get off your high horse. What the fans really want is to watch owners own.
This Sox fan is not disappointed I will miss out on 2 weeks early this year when they aren’t going to win anything for an extra year. I would be disappointed if they were dumb enough to give up the year for a couple meaningless weeks.
Exactly. I know the Sox front office has been getting a lot criticism but this is a no brainer. IF he turns out to be a star or even close, the fans will appreciate the extra year they have him.
I love baseball ,I understand both sides have to make money and I understand without owners there is no game , but man I can’t believe how so Many people take the owners side , I know by name maybe 3 owners. I watch many games ,I know by name many of the players and I enjoy watching them playing, so it would be normal to see more people defending the player’s because they are the one playing the game , for some reason so many fans care more about the billioner owners, forgive my English , glad regular season is almost here , hoping the Yankees lose ,any other team can win lol
Kris Bryant was most obvious service time manipulation in recent history. If I remember correctly he hit like 11 or 12 homers in ST and he led all of baseball!?!?! That was easily the most blatant & “maddening” decision.
Wait, spring training means nothing, remember?
I like Eloy’s future outlook. However, IMO this will be the year some fans start to be concerned about development and wonder if the rebuild is stuck in neutral.
I actually agree with a lot of the so called “experts”. It’s not a true rebuild. Reinsdorf refuses to put money into proven scouts, domestic and international as well as legit, proven managers and coaches throughout the minor leagues to develop these “prospects”. It’s not a coincidence that they have yet to hit on a 1st round pick in the last decade, in spite of having high picks. And that Moncada, Fulmer, Rodon, Gilolito, Lopez have all struggled since coming to the show.
There is no question that the players are going to strike once their CBA expires in a couple of years unless some serious changes are made. Service time and pay scales for 2nd & 3rd year players have to be addressed (it is ludacrous that Blake Snell only gets $650K after winning the Cy Young) not to mention the draft pick penalties associated with a Qualifying Offer. Owners have the league rigged to the point where players are only going to get one chance at a true, free agent deal at top dollars, and now that they are not paying players past age 31 or 32, the window gets even smaller.
While I don’t agree with the monster $300M contracts, I do believe players need to be able to make more money earlier in their careers and get to free agency earlier as well. It will make baseball much more exciting to have a lot of 26, 27, 28 year old free agents at the top of their game!
I don’t think Snell is an issue. Most players in the current CBA with slot bonuses get hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars before they play a single professional game and most of them will flame out long before making the big league roster. Snell was drafted 52nd overall and received $648k (exactly slot) in 2011. In 2018 his slot would have been $1,35M. That’s a hell of a lot of money before providing any value and there’s a risk exchange involved in the process.
I’m guessing players could negotiate higher MLB salaries by foregoing a draft slot bonus, but I don’t think anybody would do that. The Rays had $12.5M (so figure $37.5M over 3 years) in 2018 for a slot pool. There are only a handful of valuable starters/regulars who are pre-arbitration eligible on the team. That $37.5M gets spread across them over a 3 year period.
The issue about the CBA allowing for this type of service time manipulation is the issue here. I think the next CBA will eliminate the Super 2 by essentially granting all players Super 2 status and it will also alter arbitration salary formats or perhaps offer a Super 2 status to arbitration allowing players who perform at a certain level to reach free agency a year earlier.
I would have been interested to see how the MLBPA would have reacted if both Jimenez & Vlad Jr. had been sent down for 15 days. Vlad’s injury really got the Jays, and perhaps the owners generally, off the hook. Two teams pulling blatant service time manipulation at once might have finally been enough for the MLBPA to file a grievance under the CBA. After all, if this manipulation was perfectly OK, wouldn’t front offices just admit it? Why lie? They don’t make flimsy excuses for renewing pre-arb players’ contracts when they can, even if the players deserve much more. Why deny manipulation if it’s just taking advantage of the rules? Answer: they know it’s NOT allowed, but realize it’s very hard to prove if they don’t admit it. Even flimsy excuses will almost always be enough. But with the numbers Vlad & Eloy put up, it might have been enough for an arbitrator to decide it truly was service time & not “seasoning” behind the demotions.
The system is so dumb. Who came up with the bright idea to keep a player in the minors for like 20 days gets the team an extra yr of control?! It’s such a no brainer for teams to do send them down to get the extra yr of control who can fault them?
All MLB has to do is move the date to July 1st, or exactly mid season and teams will truly have a decision to make and are far less likely to pull this crap. In fact I’d bet Eloy and Vlad Jr would’ve been called up last July already if that was the rule. It’s such an easy fix…
The current cba is garbage plain and simple.
Also optioned: Jose Jimenez, Elroy Carpenter and Elroy Jetson.
Can someone explain to me why Rusney Castillo hasn’t been given a chance to make a major league roster? If Steve is so upset about a 22 year old not getting a chance but we all know he will get a chance in the near future… why doesn’t he care about a guy that has done everything asked of him for years and still sits at AAA? Oh, it’s because Rusney signed a really nice contract and is making money. No one cares about him if he’s got his money, right?
Is it really “one of the more blatant examples of service time manipulation this spring,” Steve?
Did you write this last September when the Sox announced they weren’t calling him up (and it actually was almost an injustice …) and just sit on it? As usual, you’re an absolute stooge.
Yeah if these elite guys don’t get the call the previous season there’s literally zero chance they’ll be up until the first 3 weeks have passed to get the extra yr of control. It would be bad business otherwise.
It’s just a dumb rule.
Why not move the deadline later, at least a couple months. A couple weeks is just to easy to hold a guy back for. It’s very flawed all around, and designed by a 1st grader it seems.
Excellent business decision. Eloy is not hitting now either. Let him go to AAA and find his batting stroke. So the Sox play Delmonico, Jay, Engel and L. Garcia in the outfield for now. I like Palka’s bat. He hits the ball hard but can’t field. Use him at DH. I am waiting to see the Sox put Eloy, L. Robert and Rutherford or Adolfo together in the OF-maybe next year. Then all the aforementioned will be history. The thing to do is focus on pitching. The Sox need a big upgrade to be contenders. Let’s work on improving our pitching.
This is standard operating procedure and sound business practice under the CBA. The White Sox aren’t expected to compete this year. Had they signed Machado or some more big names, it might be a different story.
Sure, put a rule in to force all these prospects up early and watch subpar baseball. Has anyone stopped to think that lack of overall baseball knowledge for these kids is actually hurting the game with subpar quality of overall play? Who cares if a guy hits a 450ft solo homer if he makes a gaff that costs you the game?!
Want shorter games? Make sure the kids that come up can also play defense without booting the ball every time it comes to them. Extra outs do not just prolong the inning, but the game overall. (which, last I checked, MLB is trying to find steps to shorten, but at the same time trying to make the game harder on the pitchers… they cannot have it both ways)
The only people really hurt by the service time are the agents, they whine and cry about the players when it is all about the money to the agent.
Or we can skip the hyperbolic parts of the your rant and just change the rules that reward not playing the top prospects?
He just needs to refuse to report. Many implications but you got to start somewhere.
I would suggest the Acuna issue was a bit different. The Braves had Kemp, Inciarte and Markakis all penciled in to start. It’s arguable that he would have gotten full time AB’s if they had kept him up and that is of utmost importance for younger players.
Eloy would be a guarantee start every game..
…not if he’s hitting .154
The writer waits until deep in the 5th paragraph of ranting on a system the players COLLECTIVELY BARGAINED to point out that dude hit .154 with zero walks. He did not tear up spring training like Bryant did. There’s an argument to be made about service time, but this ain’t it chief. If its so unfair the players need to rectify it in the CBA
Can someone convince me the White Sox won’t do the same thing to Eloy that they did to Moncada a couple years back? We were all having the same service time manipulation conversations with Moncada, expecting a mid-April call up. Then it became a super-two cutoff thing in early June. Then it was “any day now” for another month, and we didn’t end up seeing him in the bigs until late July. Similar talents, hype, MLB readiness, and nobodies blocking their positional path, so why will the Sox approach Eloy any differently than they did Moncada?
Things will change in the next CBA, and the owners will once again figure out how to optimize their choices relative to the new agreement.
It would be absolutely hilarious to see him tank in the majors after all this trash talking of service manipulation. He can wait a couple of weeks instead of crying about it, the owners get screwed on everything else and this isn’t against the rules so I don’t blame them one bit. I am just wondering how the other Chicago team is going to keep Nico Hoerner out of the bigs because that guy is legitimately having a spectacular ST so far unlike Jiminez.