1:05 pm: White Sox GM Rick Hahn announced that Jimenez has suffered a ruptured left pectoral tendon and will need surgery. In fact, he is expected to miss five to six months of action, putting his entire season at risk.
12:55 pm: White Sox left field player Eloy Jimenez left the Cactus League game yesterday with an apparent injury to his left arm after trying to steal a home run, and it appears that the Sox received a substantial blow before the season even started. Dan Bernstein from 670 The Score tweets which is a “serious” injury that will cause Jimenez to lose considerable time, and Jim Duquette, from MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM tweets that Jimenez had a ruptured chest muscle that can paralyze him for up to five to six months.
An absence of any length for Jimenez would be a notable blow to the White Sox’s chances, but losing Jimenez for most of the season is a particularly emphatic punch to the stomach for the South Siders. Jimenez, 24, scored 31 home runs as a rookie in 2019 and improved across all categories in his rate statistics in 2020, cutting .296 / .332 / .559 with 14 dingers and 14 doubles in just 226 trips to the board. He also had an attack this spring, reaching 0.319 / 0.360 / 0.532 with two home runs, two doubles and a treble in 50 plate appearances.
The injury is particularly significant for Sox due to the lack of an experienced replacement option at the camp. Utility Leury Garcia has field experience, but it seems unlikely that he will be pressured into an everyday role, and the main options on the 40-man list – Blake Rutherford, Micker Adolfo, Luis Gonzalez – has not played in Majors yet. Hahn called the notion of a recently signed prospectus Yoelki Cespedes (Yoenis’s younger brother) jumping straight into the big “premature” leagues (Twitter link via Scott Merkin of MLB.com).
The GM also suggested that the club receive a presumed designated hitter Andrew Vaughn some work in the left field while Sox evaluates internal options (Twitter link via Paul Sullivan Chicago Tribune). Vaughn already seems likely to be pushed into the Majors after skipping Double-A and Triple-A, and attacking the left field would present another challenge, given that his story is like a first baseman. Speculatively, this appears to be a case where the solution is outside the organization.
There should be several options around the league for the White Sox to consider in the coming days, as veterans choose not to sign minor league contracts with other teams. Jay Bruce it has this clause in its contract with the Yankees, for example, and it is not a block to enter the club. New York also has options out of the question Mike Tauchman, which attracted the commercial interest of up to eight teams. The Reds are facing a similar dilemma with the slugger Aristides Aquino. Unsigned options in the free agent market include Josh Reddick, Yoenis Cespedes and Yasiel Puig.