White Sox place Eloy Jiménez on 10-day IL with hamstring strain
I don’t naturally consider sports outcomes in gambling terms, but if you told me that that Vegas set the over/under line for the White Sox’s first soft-tissue injury of the 2023 season at 5½ games, I’d consider that cynical. But I also wouldn’t bet against it.
Well, now that a left hamstring strain set Eloy Jiménez to the 10-day injured list, it turns out 5½ games is just as unfair as the “injury-prone” label Rick Hahn protested, which is to say it isn’t.
The White Sox said that Jiménez will miss two to three weeks after tweaking his hamstring running the bases in the seventh inning of Monday’s 12-3 loss to San Francisco. They called up Jake Burger to take his place as the right-handed component to the DH spot.
Watching a replay of the seventh inning, he reached on a walk, went from first to third on Andrew Vaughn’s double, then scored on Yasmani Grandal’s groundout to third. He wasn’t exactly steaming into third, but he also got an early stop sign from Eddie Rodríguez.
The discomfort was more apparent on the final 90 feet.
Jiménez opened the season batting .211/.318/.316 over 22 plate appearances, so this injury doesn’t exactly interrupt a hot streak. It’s just a bigger blow to the idea of Jiménez, Yoán Moncada, Tim Anderson and Luis Robert Jr. playing more than 100 games together, especially since Jiménez hadn’t even had a chance to play the outfield.
Speaking of which, Jiménez’s absence will result in a lot of people picking up his responsibilities.
Jake Burger: He figures to assume plate appearances at DH against left-handed pitching, with the Sox hoping he can follow up on his .326/.388/.651 line over 49 plate appearances against lefties in 2022. At least Moncada has third base locked down for the time being (knocks on wood).
Gavin Sheets: He’s only accrued five plate appearances over five games. Pedro Grifol played him at first base in the second game of the season in order to get him involved, but he’s been limited to a pinch-hitting appearance since because there isn’t a natural path to playing time when Jiménez and Andrew Vaughn are healthy. Since Jiménez isn’t healthy now, Sheets is the obvious DH candidate against right-handed pitching, so we should be seeing plenty of him.
Romy González: His Opening Night start in right field suggested that Grifol considered him the fourth outfielder, even if Sheets and Jiménez have far more MLB experience. Now he’s definitely the fourth outfielder when Sheets is DHing, unless Grifol wants to lose the DH during games.
Oscar Colás: Maybe you’ll see González take Colás place in starting lineups against lefties, but this might also give Grifol some incentive to see how Grifol looks against same-sided pitching.
The White Sox face a righty today with San Francisco starting Logan Webb, so the Sox are lining them up thusly:
- Tim Anderson, SS
- Luis Robert Jr., CF
- Andrew Benintendi, LF
- Yoán Moncada, 3B
- Andrew Vaughn, 1B
- Gavin Sheets, DH
- Yasmani Grandal, C
- Oscar Colás, RF
- Elvis Andrus, 2B
You’ll see a different lineup over the following two days, as the White Sox are expected to see consecutive lefties. Alex Wood is scheduled to take the finale for San Francisco, while Rich Hill is listed as Pittsburgh’s probable pitcher for Friday.
Big day for Grifol… bad opening day game, off day, bad news on the injury front. Imperative for the team to come out fired up today and not let the dour set in.
The Liam news certainly helps! Great to see, for several reasons.
What a shock! At least he wasn’t hot to start the season. Time for Burger to shine Thursday and Friday against lefties.
Perhaps he comes back in time for Toronto is what I read as best case (maybe Tampa?)
Nice to see the profile picture issues were resolved. Nice picture.
Forensic anthropology seems appropriate for this site where we spend a lot of time on postmortems after Sox losses.
Thanks and Yes, thanks to Jim. I always thought it was because I was poor but I guess I was just special 😂
UT has one of the best programs, that’s for sure. #bodyfarm
Eloy is made of glass
More like his muscles are made out of tofu.
Hehe, Big Tofu, love it!
I think he needs to be even leaner. He supposedly was 277 last year and showed up 30 pounds lighter this year after Hahn told him to lose weight. 247 still seems a bit on the heavy side.
I still can’t figure out why he was 277 last year. Did he intend to play left tackle for the White Sox?
The White Sox need to lock Eloy in a room with Cease’s favorite yogi for a month every offseason
At least they placed him on IL immediately, so progress made. He needs a pep talk from Nelson Cruz on how to get/stay in shape for the long haul, that is the career path he needs to be following.
The good news is Burger/Sheets is pretty good replacement for Eloy at DH.
Career Numbers
Eloy vs. RHP: .241/.295/.448
Sheets vs. RHP: .253/.311/.466
Eloy vs. LHP: .281/.330/.519
Burger vs. LHP: .326/.388/.651
The blow, I think, is the potential upside Eloy provides that the platoon doesn’t. And it makes the health of the rest of the team all the more important. But if this is the only loss, it’s a storm they should weather fairly well.
They don’t lack on the DH front, it’s true. It’s another mercy of having real outfielders— if Eloy was never supposed to be a OF really, then Sheets etc aren’t forced to rumble around out there and be defensively worse too
…and the now infamous Sheets home/road splits…
Home-road splits take a long time to stabilize, much longer than what Sheets has done. I wouldn’t look that far into it.
Sheets career numbers against RHP do not represent a clear picture because at home, Sheets is Barry Bonds, while away, he hits with a wiffle bat.
Maybe the Sox can push for a rule change where someone besides the hitter can run the bases, like they do in beer league softball.
I expect Burger to rake. He’ll be coming up with a sole focus on hitting, which I think will serve him well.
Not sure he can be relied upon as a corner stone piece anymore. Has all the ability in the world but just can’t seem to stay on the field.
Hope burger rakes while up here.
Congrats on 2,000 Elvis
Just tuning in the game… why was Tim replaced for Alberto?
Tim called time out and the ump didn’t recognize it so he struck out. Next at bat there was a border line call for Luis to strike out and Tim was chirping that progressed further.
Phew… for a moment I thought it was more tofu muscles injuries.
Tossed.
https://www.knbr.com/2023/04/05/tim-anderson-gets-ejected-after-appearing-to-yell-at-logan-webb-over-quick-pitch-strikeout/
First pitch is up. Sorry, I thought I’d scheduled it, but it was still in drafts.
https://soxmachine.com/2023/04/first-pitch-white-sox-vs-giants-5/
Jake Diekman effective for 2nd game in a row is a very encouraging sign.
If you gotta use Diekman, that’s a good spot for him.
The Sox won’t need to make any July trades. Eloy will be a great 2nd half addition when he comes off the DL for the 2nd or 3rd time. Along with whoever else.