If you pay attention or have been paying attention the last few years in baseball, you know the name Eloy Jimenez. You know the name but not the FACE. Why is that you ask? Well, it’s because ever since being acquired by the White Sox for Jose Quintana, the White Sox have played the “hard to get card” as in the girl that’s playing hard to get is the major leagues. I know I’ve spoken on this subject before about service time but this is the worst case in recent history. That’s not why I’m here to discuss though. After all the bullshit the White Sox put him through, they blessed him with a shiny new contract.

The White Sox signed Eloy Jimenez to a six-year $43 million contract extension. The contract includes two club options that if they are extended, it could get Jimenez an extra $35 million. His contract is the largest contract ever given out to anyone without any MLB service time topping the Phillies Scott Kingery’s contract he signed last off-season for $24 million over six years. Hopefully all the bad juju from Kingery’s contract doesn’t rub off on Jimenez. If you don’t know, Kingery did not have the best year last year as he slashed .226/.267/.338 with only eight home runs, 10 steals, and 55 runs through 147 games. What makes Kingery a bit more valuable is his ability to play about every position on the diamond besides pitcher and catcher, which he could probably still play just not well.

Back to Eloy. Playing in Double-A and Triple-A last year, Eloy slashed .337/.384/.577 with 22 home runs, 75 RBI’s, 64 runs, 28 doubles and three triples. Eloy has four tools and the only one missing is the run tool. He’s not slow, just not fleet-footed. He can hold his own at one of the corner spots in the outfield and has a hose to make up for losing a few steps. He is ready as he could be.

Last year, Eloy expressed his displeasure about not getting called up last year but has mostly kept it pretty cordial. It’s all about service time and at this point, it would make sense to just keep him in the minors for three more weeks to delay his free agency by a year, BUT, it also make ZERO sense to keep this man down in the minors that has proved everything there is to prove. At this point in time, Eloy has not been informed yet if he will break camp with the big league club, which would be a joke, but all we can do is sit back and wait for the final word. Whether Eloy starts this year in with the big league club or not, his presence will be felt during this 2019 MLB season. Thank you.