(670 The Score) White Sox left fielder Eloy Jimenez is expected to miss the next five to six months after rupturing his left pectoral tendon, an injury that will need surgically repaired, general manager Rick Hahn said Thursday.
Jimenez suffered the injury during the second inning of a spring training game Wednesday as he reached over the outfield wall in an attempt to rob a home run hit by Athletics catcher Sean Murphy. Jimenez went down on the warning track in clear pain before leaving the field. The White Sox initially cited left shoulder discomfort as Jimenez's reason for exiting the game but didn't provide a diagnosis immediately.
Jimenez, 24, is a dangerous power hitter who was set to be in the heart of the White Sox's lineup. He hit .296 with 14 homers, 41 RBIs and an .891 OPS in 55 games in the shortened 2020 season. In his two MLB seasons, Jimenez has hit .276 with 45 home runs and 120 RBIS over 730 plate appearances in 177 games.
The White Sox could use top prospect Andrew Vaughn in the outfield to help fill Jimenez's void, Hahn said. Vaughn is a first baseman by trade but did get work in the outfield at the team's alternate camp in the 2020 season.
The early side of Jimenez's timeline for a return would mean Jimenez could come back for September in a best-case scenario. Hahn held out hope that could be the case without setting that as the expectation.
"Unfortunately, we've got a little experience with Eloy's healing," Hahn said. "But he does tend to be a quick healer. We'll just have to wait and see. If we knew today it was going to be the whole season, we'd tell you. We certainly don't want to create unrealistic expectations. But we're not at the point yet where we're calling this a season-ending injury. Yes, on the outer bounds of it, it does have that potential, but there's also the potential for him to return sooner than the month of September even."
Jimenez has a history of incidents around outfield walls, including suffering a head injury after hitting the wall in a game last July. He also suffered an ankle injury leaping at the wall in April 2019 during his rookie season.
While he certainly wished in hindsight that Jimenez hadn't attempted to make a play on the ball when he suffered his injury, Hahn didn’t fault Jimenez for trying to do so.
“Fundamentally, he got hurt trying to make a play,” Hahn said. “Was it the right decision to go for that ball especially when put in the context of spring training? Perhaps not. But fundamentally, you like the fact that he was trying to make a play.
Ultimately, 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.”