Entering the White Sox' series against the Tigers in Detroit last weekend, Eloy Jiménez hadn't looked like a particularly confident outfielder, but he also hadn't looked like an outright liability, especially if you cut him some slack for his first weeks in the majors.
Little did anybody know the Tigers planned a three-day hazing for him.
According to Baseball Savant's count, the Tigers hit 16 pitches in his direction over the three-game series, which beefed up his sample size in left. Unfortunately, it sent his numbers careening in the wrong direction, giving him the kind of delayed initiation that Nicky Delmonico immediately suffered through in front of the Green Monster a couple of years ago.
Jimenez is already four outs below average on the season according to Statcast, and in just 44 chances. That rate is literally Palka-esque, as Daniel Palka was -2 through 22 chances before he was optioned to Charlotte.
The Baseball Savant chart to the right shows the start of Jiménez's weaknesses. He's bottom-three in the league in Catch Percentage Added, with a 10 percent deficit between his expected and actual catch percentage (Adam Engel is 7 percent above expected). None of these are definitive due to the extremely small sample, but I just wanted to freeze them in time so we can look for progress later.
I thought Jiménez's problems might stem from playing overcautiously deep, but Statcast says his start position isn't the problem. He plays an average of 292 feet away from home, which is middle of the pack for left fielders, and tied for the third-shallowest Sox left fielder since Statcast started tracking it.
Going through the 16 balls hit in play in his direction the last time the Sox saw the Tigers, it might seem like he starts deeper, but it's because he doesn't really close on anything directly. The result is some kind of forced-perspective trick where he always looks far away from the ball.
In defense of Jiménez's defense, he did face a randomly difficult sample. The Tigers went 12-for-16 on those balls in play to left field, and the gaudy average itself isn't the fault of Jiménez. Most of them were low line drives that he had to cut off or chase into gaps and corners.
Delmonico's cameo in Baltimore due to Jiménez's trip to the bereavement list gave us an idea of what a more normal sample looks like for an adequate-at-best left fielder. Delmonico saw 11 balls hit in his direction over his 2½ games in left, and the Orioles went 5-for-11. The hits were all singles hit well in front of him, and he only had one feasible chance that tested him. He passed:
Up until that last batted ball the White Sox defended in Camden Yards, Delmonico hadn't been noticed, which is the hope for all such left fielders. When forced to saddle up, he handled the chance with a little less grace than an average left fielder, but in a way where I'd expect him to make that play again.
Regarding the first part, Jiménez shouldn't look as bad as he did in Detroit just by virtue of better luck. If Jiménez got the chances Delmonico handled in Baltimore, we wouldn't be writing about him, unless I were noting that Jiménez's body language when parking under a ball sometimes resembles a guy trying to remember why he walked into a room. And if Delmonico had been tested at the edge of his range so frequently, he might not have covered himself in glory, either.
That all said ... Jiménez still has quite a ways to go before he gets to Delmonico's brand of acceptable.
There were three balls that he could've caught with better routes, including two in the ninth inning last Friday with Alex Colomé on the mound.
This fly ball down the line by Jeimer Candelario had an expected batting average of .010:
Two batters later, Gordon Beckham hit a high fly that sent Jiménez in the other direction, and again, his route resembles an arc in response to an arc, rather than a straight line to where he thinks the ball is going.
The wind likely played a part in Jiménez's physical confusion there, but it also makes the path seen in the first GIF all the more counterintuitive. There's just nothing clean about his routes even under different conditions, like this drive by Niko Goodrum on Thursday:
This is the most difficult play of the three, and maybe he doesn't make the catch without a scary wall collision. But Statcast has a chart for this one, and it illustrates the two segments that his routes tend to include.
He tends to go back and then over, as if his initial instinct is to limit the damage, then see if he can make a play on it. He pulled up well short on this ball in the left-field corner in the opener on April 18, which allowed Beckham to score from first.
This approach makes sense on some corners, like the rounded-off ones you see in Fenway Park, Kauffman or Angel stadiums. It isn't so useful with a squared-off corner, but Jiménez comes off as ultra-cautious in just about all his actions in left field. It's like he's playing no-triples defense, which creates extra doubles the way no-doubles defense makes room for singles.
The Tigers gave him hell in the fourth inning on Sunday, including another drive along the warning track by Nicholas Castellanos. Jiménez didn't have a real strong shot, but there was also nothing pretty about the effort he conjured.
Miguel Cabrera then lined a single his way, followed by Goodrum slicing a fly into foul territory. Here, Jiménez actually made the play:
That's a direct route. It's also a fine catch given the distance covered and danger involved, and it gives some hope that he can close the gap over time. Based on his limited body of work over three weeks of games, my best guess is that somebody is controlling him with an Etch-a-Sketch. Need him to go straight sideways? Not a problem. Need to go diagonally, and you better like staircases.
Whether it's by luck or by ability, here's hoping this series captured the worst of Jiménez, kinda like the way Delmonico stopped resembling his Fenway Park form after a month or so. Rick Hahn wasn't lying when he said Jiménez needed to work on his defense. The lie was pretending that the Sox were addressing the issue when they were only avoiding it. Chances are he will get better, but grinding through MLB chances are the only way he'll raise confidence levels, both for himself and everybody watching him.
