The commerce deadline isn’t a coda to this White Sox season — this debacle, this farce, this insult to tire fires — as a result of the tune isn’t over but. There’s nonetheless one other third of the way in which to go, one other verse on the street to 120 losses. No, in songwriting phrases it is a bridge, a shift to a minor key adopted by a saxophone solo, meant to place you within the temper for a modulation and the massive end.
The White Sox aren’t buying and selling Garrett Crochet. They’re buying and selling one of many two huge outfielders who had been supposed to show right into a legendary Chicago sports activities double act, alongside Jordan and Pippen, Toews and Kane, Perry and Singletary. However they’re not buying and selling Luis Robert Jr.
Bear in mind, all the way in which again in 2019, when Eloy Jiménez was one of many prime 5 prospects in baseball? When securing his future dedication to the franchise was so essential that the White Sox solely allowed him to make his main league debut after he signed a six-year contract extension with two workforce choices? Yeah, effectively after years of accidents and disappointment and recriminations, Jiménez is headed to Baltimore in alternate for minor league left-hander Trey McGough.
By no means for a minute did this iteration of White Sox management appear like it was destined for fulfillment. And of all that’s occurred underneath Chris Getz’s administration, from the weird to the out of date to the defeatist, it’s onerous to disagree with buying and selling Jiménez now. Jiménez has proven occasional suits of greatness, from his 31-homer rookie season to a sophomore marketing campaign that totaled 1.5 WAR in simply 55 video games. However the poor man has been although damage after damage. He’s torn or strained or tweaked nearly each little bit of muscle and connective tissue from the highest of his head to the ideas of his toes. He tore a pectoral muscle chasing a fly ball in March 2021, and since then he’s performed simply 324 video games throughout nearly 4 seasons.
Alongside the way in which, his energy backed up, and for a DH (and now that he’s out of Chicago, let’s cease kidding ourselves: he was a DH, irrespective of the place a sequence of White Sox managers was pressured to play him) who doesn’t stroll a lot, effectively, energy is every part.
Because the accidents mounted, Jiménez — by no means an elevate-and-celebrate kind of hitter to start out with — solely beat the ball into the bottom an increasing number of. This 12 months, he’s hitting simply .240/.297/.345, with the third-highest groundball fee in baseball amongst hitters with not less than 200 PA. (One of many two guys forward of him, Jiménez’s former teammate Tim Anderson, obtained lower by the Marlins nearly 4 weeks in the past.)
That huge, splashy contract Jiménez signed in 2019 is winding right down to the top of its run. The massive man, who continues to be solely 27 regardless of having lived and died 100 main league careers’ value thus far, is making $13.833 million this 12 months, with a workforce possibility for $16.5 million in 2025. Given the market worth of a DH with a wRC+ of 80, sensible cash is on the Orioles taking the $3 million buyout.
It’s unhappy to see the top of a factor that when held a lot promise. It stinks of wasted potential, unrealized due to destiny (most likely), damage (undoubtedly), and a workforce that didn’t know the best way to get the very best out of the gamers it had.
Now that the Orioles have Jiménez, it raises the plain query of what Baltimore — which has no scarcity of outfield/DH sorts in its group — needs with him. Or with Austin Slater, for that matter, who was acquired from Cincinnati moments earlier than the deadline. Significantly as a result of the Orioles simply despatched out one other right-handed outfielder — one other right-handed outfielder named Austin, even — within the Seranthony Domínguez commerce final week.
Talking for Jiménez first, the Orioles do have a great monitor document for fixing iffy energy bats. Simply final 12 months, they turned Ryan O’Hearn from a man who couldn’t even stick on the bench for a foul Royals workforce right into a middle-of-the-order hitter in a playoff-bound lineup. They usually’re assured in their very own hitting pedagogy: Baltimore simply spent a first-round decide on North Carolina outfielder Vance Honeycutt, who may very well be a star two-way participant if his swing didn’t have extra gaps than a spaghetti strainer. Maybe they see one thing redeemable in Jiménez, who had a 105 wRC+ as lately as final 12 months.
Discovering out will value them McGough, a 26-year-old former minor league Rule 5 decide. In his first full season within the bullpen, he’s obtained a 1.99 ERA throughout Double-A and Triple-A, with 55 strikeouts in 54 1/3 innings. McGough most likely isn’t a future nearer or something, however he’s near the massive leagues and ok to warrant a numbered rating (thirty seventh) on final month’s Orioles prime prospect listing. That’s a future worth grade of 35+.
Slater involves Baltimore having spent solely a month in Cincinnati after components of eight seasons with the Giants. The explanation you’d need Slater after simply buying and selling Austin Hays is that the previous can play a reputable middle subject. Sadly, Slater’s bat appears to have gone bitter up to now 12 months; after 4 straight seasons of above-average offensive manufacturing, he’s slugging simply .222 this season.
However the Orioles had been in a position to decide up not solely Slater however shortstop Livan Soto and money concerns from the Reds in alternate for both money concerns or a participant to be named later. Which is code for nothing — Money Issues shouldn’t be getting the Full Harry Chiti Remedy.
Soto is strolling rather a lot within the minors however not hitting for energy (.280/.378/.376 in 77 Triple-A video games throughout three organizations to date this 12 months), however he’s obtained another choice 12 months left after this one, he can play throughout the infield, and he simply turned 24.
And the Orioles clearly like him — that is the third time they’ve acquired Soto up to now six months. Baltimore picked him up off waivers from the Angels in February, then misplaced him again to the Angels 10 days later, then plucked him off the Angels’ waiver wire once more in April, then eight days later put him again on waivers and misplaced him to the Reds, who DFA’d Soto this morning. Truly, I’ve modified my thoughts. The extra I take into consideration the Orioles repeatedly claiming and chopping Soto, the extra it seems like some sick sport, and it feels voyeuristic to observe.
We’ll see how the Orioles, who had been one of many extra lively groups on the deadline, match all these items on the 40-man roster, and the way they handle to get at-bats for Jiménez, not to mention Slater. (That’s assuming Slater doesn’t get lower unfastened within the upcoming roster crunch.) Regardless, the Orioles are apparently leaving no stone unturned of their pursuit of outfield assist. As they need to. In the event that they want a reminder of how rapidly a promising younger workforce can unravel, they know who to name.