The Orioles announced that they have declined their club option on outfielder/designated hitter Eloy Jiménez. They could have retained him for 2025 with a salary of $16.5MM but will instead give him a $3MM buyout and send him to free agency. The Sox are covering half of that buyout as part of the trade that sent him to Baltimore this summer.
The decision is an unsurprising one. Jiménez has occasionally been a potent slugger but the injuries have piled up in recent years and he just wrapped up the worst season of his career. The Orioles acquired him from the White Sox at the deadline, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle with a buy-low move but it didn’t pan out. He finished the year with a .238/.289/.336 batting line and 78 wRC+.
Jiménez is one of the slower players in the league and doesn’t provide defensive value. He only spent eight innings in the field this year, none with the Orioles. Given the limited profile, he really needs to be producing at the plate in order to be useful.
That has been the case before. Through the end of 2022, he was sporting a career line of .276/.327/.504 and a 123 wRC+. He was often injured during that time but clearly a productive hitter when on the field. The Sox had given him a $43MM extension before he even made his major league debut and he seemed to be making good on that investment for a while.
In 2023, he stayed healthy enough to get into 120 games, just two shy of his career high. But the results dipped, as his .272/.317/.441 line led to a 105 wRC+. As mentioned, his performance fell even further this year. As the Sox were playing out their historically bad season this year, they flipped him to the O’s at the deadline for minor league reliever Trey McGough, covering most of the money left on the contract in order to get the deal done.
Now a free agent, some club will undoubtedly take a chance on Jiménez based on his past performance. But his poor health track record and recent struggles will limit him to a modest base salary, perhaps with incentives for him to potentially unlock if he’s able to stay healthy and return to form. He is still fairly young, turning 28 later this month, so a bounceback isn’t totally out of the question.
No shock here
The only shock is with their farm system is why they wanted him in the first place.
It was a flyer that just didn’t work out. They traded LHP Trey McGough for Jimenez.
McGough was a 24th round pick by the Pirates in 2019. He’ll be 27 in March, and he’s only reached 100 IP in a season once, back in 2021, This year he pitched 81 innings for AA Bowie and AAA Norfolk and Charlotte. After the trade to Chicago, he went 4-2 with a 1.98 ERA. He doesn’t strike many guys out (career high 90 Ks in 2021) so the O’s may not hahve seen him as a potential starter.
Oddly, he managed to balk 6 times this year…not sure what that’s about.
breslow – Agreed, Jiménez pales in comparison to other DH/OF such as Yoshida and certainly isn’t worth the $16.5M. If he doesn’t have a rebound season at the plate next year he will have a hard time reaching his 30’s as an MLB player.
I’ll always like Jimenez not only for his play – when he was able to – but for his playful attitude and for beating the snot out of the cubs, the team that traded him to the Sox.
Bad deals by the orioles at the deadline and now they pay an extra 3 mil awful
White Sox covered half the buyout.Failed move for sure.
Their fans thought Eloy was the messiah when Jimenez went 8-for-16 in his first 5 games with the club.
Sox fans and Chicago sports radio did the same. Sports radio hosts and the fan base used this to argue of the Sox’ shameful clubhouse reputation. Then Eloy went back to being Eloy, and the fan base and sports radio easily forgot about him, except for the ones who stopped paying attention a few days after the trade.
Seems like the juiced ball was most beneficial for Eloy.
Yeah, he hit 31 HR in 122 games in 2019, but the “juiced ball” didn’t suddenly go away and cause him to only hit 14 in 2020 and 10 in 2021 (both years he only played 55 games.) and 16 and 18 in 2022 and 2023.
Business Insider found that MLB used two different “types” of baseballs in 2021, and Dr. Meredith Wills of SportsMedia Technology Corp, found that MLB used three diferent “types” of balls in 2022. In 2021, the “goldilocks” ball used in the AS game, playoffs and “multiple” Yankee games resulted in higher exit velos and more offense. In 2022, there were lighter “dead” balls, heavier “juiced” balls and a “goldilocks” ball. The heavier “dead” ball traveled further than the ligher and “goldilocks” ball when hit with the same force.
The dip in power also doesn’t really explain the complete crash of his BA and OBP last year.. Even with last year’s .238/.289/.336 disaster, he’s a career .269/.318/.462 hitter.
si.com/mlb/yankees/news/mlb-multiple-baseballs-202…
Part of the 2017 rebuild which was successful until Reinsdorf blew it to pieces in 2021.
3 million is still plenty good money considering the abysmal production he had last year.
Kind of a silly trade by the Orioles. Seems like they made a deal just to make a deal instead of going and getting a true impact player.
What do you mean? They traded for Trevor Rogers
too one-dimensional of a player cant see him getting much work next year.
Future Angel or Athletic.
Next stop? Some league overseas.
Oft injured goldbrick. His 1 year deal from whoever should be low base and incentives tied to ABs. Ditto Moncada-if they want to resurrect career, stay on the field.