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 track isn’t over but. There’s nonetheless one other third of the best way 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 large end.
The White Sox aren’t buying and selling Garrett Crochet. They’re buying and selling one of many two huge outfielders who have 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 best way again in 2019, when Eloy Jiménez was one of many high 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 staff choices? Yeah, properly 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 to be 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 And of all that’s occurred underneath Chris Getz’s administration, from the weird to the out of date to the defeatist, it’s exhausting to disagree with buying and selling Jiménez now.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 harm after harm. He’s torn or strained or tweaked nearly each little bit of muscle and connective tissue from the highest of his head to the guidelines 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 virtually 4 seasons.
Alongside the best way, 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 collection of White Sox managers was compelled to play him) who doesn’t stroll a lot, properly, energy is every little thing.
Because the accidents mounted, Jiménez — by no means an elevate-and-celebrate sort 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 charge in baseball amongst hitters with at the least 200 PA. (One of many two guys forward of him, Jiménez’s former teammate Tim Anderson, received lower by the Marlins virtually 4 weeks in the past.)
That huge, splashy contract Jiménez signed in 2019 is winding all the way down to the top of its run. The massive man, who remains to be solely 27 regardless of having lived and died 100 main league careers’ value up to now, is making $13.833 million this 12 months, with a staff possibility for $16.5 million in 2025. Given the market worth of a DH with a wRC+ of 80, good cash is on the Orioles taking the $3 million buyout.
It’s unhappy to see the top of a factor that after held a lot promise. It stinks of wasted potential, unrealized due to destiny (in all probability), harm (undoubtedly), and a staff that didn’t know the best way to get one of the best out of the gamers it had.
Now that the Orioles have Jiménez, it raises the apparent query of what Baltimore — which has no scarcity of outfield/DH varieties in its group — desires with him. Or with Austin Slater, for that matter, who was acquired from Cincinnati moments earlier than the deadline. Notably 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 very good observe 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 staff right into a middle-of-the-order hitter in a playoff-bound lineup. And so they’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 just 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 received a 1.99 ERA throughout Double-A and Triple-A, with 55 strikeouts in 54 1/3 innings. McGough in all probability isn’t a future nearer or something, however he’s near the large leagues and adequate to warrant a numbered rating (thirty seventh) on final month’s Orioles high prospect checklist. That’s a future worth grade of 35+.
Slater involves Baltimore having spent solely a month in Cincinnati after elements of eight seasons with the Giants. The rationale you’d need Slater after simply buying and selling Austin Hays is that the previous can play a reputable heart subject. Sadly, Slater’s bat appears to have gone bitter prior to now 12 months; after 4 straight seasons of above-average offensive manufacturing, he’s slugging simply .222 this season.
However the Orioles have been capable of 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 will not be getting the Full Harry Chiti Remedy.
Soto is strolling loads within the minors however not hitting for energy (.280/.378/.376 in 77 Triple-A video games throughout three organizations thus far this 12 months), however he’s received an alternative 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 prior 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 slicing Soto, the extra it seems like some sick sport, and it feels voyeuristic to observe.
We’ll see how the Orioles, who have been one of many extra energetic 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 free 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 shortly a promising younger staff can unravel, they know who to name.
