*Photo from The Athletic*
One of the biggest stars in the Chicago White Sox lineup will be out for a long time. White Sox OF Eloy Jimenez will miss 5-6 months after suffering a ruptured pectoral tendon while trying to rob a home run, according to an announcement by the White Sox. Jimenez will undergo surgery.
White Sox GM Rick Hahn said of Jimenez's injury that "It’s going to be very hard for him not to be around us for the next several months. I’m looking for a silver lining in this that it can be a learning experience or positive for him in the long term. But for today, the next few days until he gets the repair done, it’s reasonable for him to be as disappointed as he is."
In the White Sox spring training game on Wednesday, Jimenez was backtracking to the wall in an attempt to catch the ball, but couldn't come down with it, and his left arm caught onto the wall. It then hung over the wall as Jimenez leaped, and after he came down, he stayed on the ground until team trainers helped him off the field.
Jimenez does have injury history in his two big league seasons. He missed nearly a month at the start of 2019 with a high ankle sprain after crashing into the outfield wall. He went back on the IL in July for about 10 days with a right ulnar nerve contusion after a collision in the outfield. In 2020, he went on the IL trying to chase down a grand slam hit by Twins Jake Cave.
Hahn said of trying to establish a timeline that "At some point in the much distant future, we’ll talk to him and talk through a plan about perhaps making some better decisions or what we are expecting of him going forward from a defensive standpoint. But for now, and for the immediate future, it’s going to be about getting him healthy again and getting him back contributing. We’ll discuss keeping him on the field at a later date."
The White Sox do have options to replace Jimenez in the outfield. Guys like Leury Garcia, Nick Williams, and Billy Hamilton are looking for increased playing time now, and White Sox top prospect Andrew Vaughn will likely get playing time out there as well.
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