Eloy Jimenez won’t call the Windy City home anymore. The Chicago White Sox traded the former Silver Slugger award winner to the Baltimore Orioles as Tuesday’s MLB trade deadline approached.
Jimenez to the Orioles is one of the final deals made before the approaching deadline. The Orioles, feeling they had to make a move, added a potentially big bat to their lineup.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported the trade on Tuesday evening on X, the website formerly known as Twitter.
Trade news: The Baltimore Orioles are finalizing a deal to acquire outfielder Eloy Jimenez from the Chicago White Sox, sources tell ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 30, 2024
Jimenez joined the White Sox big league roster in the 2019 season. He was formerly a Chicago Cubs prospect but was traded across town in the Jose Quintana deal in 2017. Ace pitcher Dylan Cease was also involved in that deal as a former Chicago prospect.
Since then, the White Sox slugger has had trouble staying on the field. He’s never played a full season and in four of the last five seasons, he’s played in 55, 55, 84, and 65 games this year. In 2023, he played in 120, two short of his career high in 2019, his rookie season.
Jimenez has 94 career home runs. He hit a whopping 31 as a rookie but hasn’t reached the 20-homer plateau since. This season, he’s hit .240/.277/.345, with just five home runs and a career-low ISO of .105.
Essentially, the Orioles are hoping for a return to form for the slugging Jimenez. Baltimore has yet to report a return.
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022