White Sox Minor Keys: Eloy Jiménez reporting to Winston-Salem
As reported by 670 The Score’s Shane Riordan, Eloy Jiménez will indeed begin his rehab stint with the Winston-Salem Dash starting today. On Thursday, Jiménez made an appearance on Zoom with his usual ebullience.
Coming back after an absence of more than three months due to a ruptured left pectoral tendon, Jiménez might need all of the 20 days to get back into game shape. I’d call that a fortunate outcome, if only because setbacks exist. Jiménez intends on not needing anything else:
“They have not given me a timeline,” said Jiménez during a Thursday Zoom session, when asked if there was a target date for his comeback. “But I think I can be there at the end of this month. That’s my thought, but I don’t know. They don’t tell me when I’m going to be there.
“I feel better than Spring Training. I feel like 100%, 110% — let’s say 200%. So I feel pretty normal. I feel like I can go and do my swing, finish with one hand, two hands, whatever.”
Jiménez says he’d rather not serve as the designated hitter if he doesn’t have to, but it’s hard to find a reason to play him in the field — not with an open concern at DH and at least five outfielders better than him.
Winston-Salem finishes out a home series with Hickory this weekend, after which they’ll play the following week in Bowling Green, Ky. That’s an hour north of Nashville, so I’ll be there if he is. And even if he isn’t. It’s the All-Star break, after all.
Charlotte 4, Jacksonville 2 (Game 1, 7 innings)
- Blake Rutherford went 2-for-4 with a homer.
- Luis González was 1-for-3 with a K.
- Ti’Quan Forbes went 0-for-1 with two walks.
- Jonathan Stiever: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 HBP
Charlotte 4, Jacksonville 3 (Game 2, 7 innings)
- Blake Rutherford was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Yermín Mercedes, 0-for-3 with a walk.
- Luis González went 1-for-3 with a K.
- Ti’Quan Forbes singled, hit a sac fly and struck out.
- Jimmy Lambert: 5 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 HR
Birmingham 12, Biloxi 2
- Romy Gonzalez went 2-for-5 and was caught stealing.
- Micker Adolfo was 2-for-5 with a homer and two strikeouts.
- Carlos Pérez went 2-for-4 with a walk.
- Kade McClure: 5 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 1 HR
Hickory 8, Winston-Salem 7
- Lenyn Sosa did what Romy Gonzalez did above.
- Yoelqui Céspedes went 2-for-5 with two doubles, two strikeouts and a stolen base.
- Yolbert Sanchez was 1-for-4 with a strikeout and a stolen base.
- Luis Curbelo went 1-for-5 with two strikeouts.
- Catcher Kleyder Sanchez has surfaced in Winston-Salem, and went 2-for-4 with a double and a strikeout.
ACL Brewers 7, ACL White Sox 2 (7 innings)
- Wilber Sanchez had a perfect night: 3-for-3 with a double and a walk.
- Benyamin Bailey was 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Wilfred Veras, 0-for-3 with a strikeout.
- Logan Glass tripled and struck out twice.
- Anthony Espinoza singled and struck out twice.
- Matthew Thompson began rehabbing: 2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 1 HR
- Cristian Mena: 2.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 0 K, 1 HR
Kannapolis at Fredericksburg PPD
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https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/the-board/2021-in-season-prospect-list/farm-ranking?sort=-1,1&type=100&filter=&pos=&team=
Fangraphs sites that losing eligibility for guys like Vaughn, Kopech, Madrigal, and Crochet took them from mid pack to dead last… yikes
Flags my friend. Flags! They fly forever.
100% give me the top actual team all day every day as oppose to the top farm but its still a bit worrisome to be dead last puts a little more pressure on this draft and the next international signing period which hopefully already has Colas locked up.
Wait a second here. I thought the object of the game was to get your closer saves, finish above .500 without spending any money, and have a highly ranked farm system…clearly some people have a different idea!
Yeah when you look at their rebuild and roster, aside from Vaughn, Madrigal, and TA, they have very little to show for their draft picks over the years. Eloy, Moncada, Giolito, Cease, Kopech through trades, Abreu/Robert int’ll signings. It stands to reason that teams with top tier farm systems just have way, way smarter people working for them.
The Dodgers have won 90+ games for the past 8 years and are still 11th without having virtually any high draft picks the past decade. And the Rays at #1 even after being in WS last year. It speaks to those teams either having vastly better talent evaluation, or alternately the same with coaching and development. If the Sox want to improve their system, it would pay for them to simply pay whatever it would cost in salary to poach a couple people from either of those two teams. Obviously they know what they are doing, and the Sox clearly do not by comparison.
They still seem unable to develop players. They have success with guys who come in with already elite skills (high first rounders, big international signings, other teams’ elite prospects) but they can’t develop post-first rounders or normal international prospects.
The current active roster has at least eight of those types of guys: Engel, Mendick, Foster, Burr, Fry, Heuer, Sheets, Zavala. Not saying they are all developmental successes, but they aren’t failures either.
Sheets potentially could be a success but everyone else is bench/bullpen guys or not even that (Zavala). Most teams with good systems are creating a few starters or at least a cache of trade chips. Sheets is the only guy who could contribute to a traditional prospects for current production trade.
think I saw on twitter that based on WAR thru his first 5 games sheets had already been a top 10 all time 2nd round pick for the sox haha
“Very little” seems a tad over the top in my opinion. With the exception of Carson Fulmer, every White Sox first round pick since 2013 has played on the MLB roster this year. The last few years the draft picks were selected specifically for this window, so it’s not surprising the farm system is taking a hit while all the kids are pushed up quickly. Now that the major league team is established, I think this draft will be very interesting how they plan to reload the farm.
There are many ways to build a roster. I agree with Knoxfire. Who cares how they got here, they have a very good team with an impressive, young core that is locked up for a while.
Hahn has done a great job with the rebuild overall, mainly by nailing the trades for Sale, Quintana, and Eaton. Without the rash of injuries there would be very few holes on the big league club, aside from RF (of course).
How they got here determines how they will stay here or get further. Without decent prospects, you can’t make impact trades to help win the postseason or stay good for multiple years in a row
As for “many ways to build a roster” the one way that the Sox could/should have tried during the rebuild was taking on a bad contract here or there to get prospects as part of the deal. Several teams have taken that approach in recent years…some that come to mind are (IIRC) the Braves, Padres, and Rays. But that would require spending money so you know…
You can imagine some team in the situation the Sox are in trying to work out a deal for a guy like Jason Heyward (for example) and taking several Cubs prospects as part of that deal. But the Sox wouldn’t consider a deal like that.
Hahn has talked about wanting to be an organization that can maintain success over time. Looking at the farm system, there is no indication of that. There is a lot to be said for being an organization that can periodically retool instead of going through boom and bust cycles
I was only talking about their farm system and player development in comparison to the Dodgers and Rays. The Dodgers have won 90 games like 8 years in a row, and have not had a first round pick higher than 20th in almost 10 years. They win every year so they pretty much never trade away players for prospects. How is it that they have an 11th rated system and have been rated higher than that the past few years? Luck? I’m just saying, either they have significantly better talent evaluators or ability to develop players. One of those two things has to be true. I’m not saying the Sox are awful, but by comparison the Dodgers are clearly enormously better in one or probably both of those areas. Toward that end, the Sox might do well to hire away somebody from their organization to learn what they can do better. Ditto for the Rays, whose success with as low a payroll as they have, and top rated farm system a year removed from going to the WS shows they must have some of the smartest people working for them in the business.
Any notion that the Sox are on par with those two teams in terms of player development or talent evaluation, or bright people working for them is not realistic or objective. Which is why I suggested poaching people from either team, to make our system better.
I would guess the Sox have had the most success with first round picks since 2010. Sale (who turned into Moncada, Kopech), Rodon, Anderson, Collins, Burdi. Burger, Vaughn, Madrigal and Crochet have all played in the majors this year, with 8 of those players (everyone except Burger and Burdi) having played significantly for the Sox. I don’t think any other team can boast that first round success. Houston had two consecutive #1 picks that never sniffed the majors (Appel and Aiken). Yes, they haven’t had great contributions from lower picks, but still have several players on the roster who fill that bill. I would like to see a comparison of all the top teams and how many of their picks are contributing. I’ll bet the Sox would be near the top of that.
The Sox have not picked lower than 11th the past 7 years, with 3 picks in the top 5. Of course their first round picks are going to be more successful than other teams picking a lot lower. They had better be. Aside from bad records leading to high draft picks, the Sox farm system is nothing to brag about, to say the least. They would not have Vaughn, Madrigal, or Rodon without having had nearly the worst record in baseball the year before.
Even when picking high in the draft, drafting—and then developing—major leaguers is difficult. Out of curiosity, I looked at the Phillies 1st round picks to compare to the Sox. From 2013-2019, the average 1st round Sox pick (not counting supplementals) was 8th overall. During the same span, the average Phillies pick was 8.4th overall. The Phils picks (in order of year drafted) are J. P. Crawford, Aaron Nola, Cornelius Randolph, Mickey Moniak, Adam Haseley, Alec Bohm, and Bryson Stott. At this point, only Nola has truly panned out. The others are either still in the minors or struggling in the majors (Crawford has been solid for the M’s this year, but it’s his first good year).
The lesson here is that picking major leaguers is hard, even when you’re doing it high in the first round. The Sox deserve some credit for doing this relatively well.
I agree they deserve some credit for that. At the same time it is fair to say that aside from first round picks they have not drafted or developed that well, as others have posted. Or their farm system wouldn’t be dead last now.
Of course is understandable the the Sox are on the low end now after calling up all their prospects. What is not understandable is how the Dodgers are 11th (and usually higher than that), without a top 20 pick in nearly 10 years. They must have some incredible people working for them, as must the Rays. Maybe the Sox are not terrible, but their player development people cannot be in the category of those of the Dodgers or Rays. That’s fair and objective.
Yeah, I think that’s fair. The Dodgers and Rays seem to be in a class of their own. But, to be fair, I don’t think either of those teams can match the Sox in affordable, team controlled talent on the major league roster. So, I think the Sox *could* get there in ~3-5 years if they spent on free agents to patch any holes instead of trading prospects, drafted high upside high schoolers, and invested in the international market. Unfortunately, that’s an enormous if.
The White Sox have $125 million committed for 2022 if they pick up Anderson’s first option. “Affordable” for the White Sox is putting them at their budgetary breaking point now because they wasted so many of their top players’ pre-arb years.
I think they’ve done well with their top-5 picks, and now that Burger, Collins, and Crochet are all contributing their first round picks even after that are starting to bear fruit. But the problem is that pipeline ends once the MLB team starts to succeed, and if they can’t get more out of the back half of the first round and later other than the occasional reliever and bench player, their system is going to suffer badly in the long run.
Definitely not good, but not completely dire. Next year they’ll have Cespedes, Colas, Vera, and will hopefully start getting some contributions from the high school pitchers. I also like Jose Rodriguez and Bryan Ramos.
Fangraphs are very low on Cespedes, Colas and Vera, which won’t bump up the Fangraphs ranking of the farm system anytime soon. IIRC, they had Cespedes at like 35+ FV
Hardly surprising. I think they’re the only team without a single top-100 prospect after the graduations, and nobody is really close to being top-100 right now either. The top end of their system is pretty devoid of elite prospects and is mostly upside with little actual production. Cespedes is probably their top prospect now, and he’s approaching 24 years old in High-A with a 36% K rate. Unless Norge Vera hits the ground running, the only way they stand to get a top prospect is to draft a high risk/high-upside guy who immediately starts crushing it in his minor league assignment.
With all the bullpen issues the Sox are having, Nik Turley has an ERA in the 1.3’s at AAA in 20 appearances along withe a WHIP of .76. It’s AAA but still, those are really good numbers. He would almost certainly have a shot at being a bit better than the worst of their struggling relievers.
Got tickets to see the Dash Saturday night on the 3rd baseline.
One would hope he isn’t there long so wanted to get to see him one time in person.
If he really doesn’t want to DH, I hope he spent time in the video room watching how to play LF better. It would be a wonderful problem to have.
I am sure it’s been brought up. But could Eloy work on 1B during the offseason?
I hope they figure something out. DH is easiest solution. Seems just a matter of time before he injures himself or someone else again in LF. He just has no awareness of his surroundings out there.
Good idea. We need a backup plan in case Abreu, Vaughn, Burger and Sheets all get hurt
Considering the injury rates, a decent depth chart must contain about 5 players per position.
I’m talking next year, and Burger and Sheets might not be around …
Toss Collins and Grandal into that formula also.
At this point, I would consider trading a potentially great DH for a really good RF who bats left for similar money with years on contract.
Do you have anyone in mind?
I know. Easy to dream, hard to execute.
The FO has been dumpster diving and cross-training on the fly all year.
And while they have had some success with it, they still couldn’t package them in a bunch and get much in return. And that is another symptom of poor management. Kicking the can down the road takes time and money without really changing anything.
quick look at potential free agency next off season I see a lot of bats, not a lot of starting pitching…
with how hard it may be to keep the rotation together I think you maybe target an OF bat in free agency and if you are gonna move one of the DH type right hand bats maybe it would be for a cost controlled starting pitcher
Might do more damage on the infield. Take out a few infielders, opposing team’s first base coach, baserunner, bat boy and a camerman.