Some players just have the luxury of never running out of opportunities. No matter how much they fail, teams will always bet on natural talent.
There’s no better example than former Chicago White Sox designated hitter Eloy Jiménez — a player once destined to be baseball’s next great power hitter.
Advertisement
Jiménez had everything you could want. He had just enough bat-to-ball skill paired with unbelievable raw strength, the kind that made it feel like he could accidentally hit 30 to 40 home runs every season.
When you’re as strong as Jiménez, you don’t even need to square the ball up to send it out of the yard. That was especially true playing his home games at the hitter-friendly confines of Rate Field.
Jiménez hit 31 home runs as a rookie in 2019. Then he followed that up with 14 homers in the shortened 60-game 2020 season — a pace of 37 over a full year — all before his 24th birthday.
The sky was the limit… or so it seemed.
Advertisement
From 2021 through 2023, Jiménez was still an above-average bat for the White Sox, but he was almost never healthy. He became a defensive liability, was plagued by chronic soft-tissue injuries, and seemed to get hurt doing just about anything.
If he hustled down the line to first base or took an awkward step in the outfield, Jiménez was heading straight back to the injured list.
Over time, it took its toll on his performance — along with questions about his offseason conditioning and preparation.
After a miserable start to the 2024 season — hitting .240 with five home runs and a .642 OPS — the Sox officially gave up and Jiménez was traded to the Baltimore Orioles. Things only got worse there. He hit just one home run before being optioned to the minors in September.
Advertisement
Jiménez entered free agency before the 2025 season and hasn’t appeared in a major-league game since.
He did get a minor-league deal with the Tampa Bay Rays, but once again injuries followed. Even when he was on the field, the power was gone. In 40 games with Triple-A Durham, Jiménez hit just three home runs with a .397 slugging percentage.
That was the real mystery. Injuries are one thing, but even when healthy, Jiménez no longer looked like the same hitter. How does someone with that much raw strength simply lose their power?
By July, the Rays had seen enough and released him.
The Toronto Blue Jays picked him up on a minor-league deal in September and sent him to Triple-A Buffalo, where he hit .167 in six games to close out the season. At the time, it was a puzzling move.
Advertisement
But it makes more sense in light of recent events.
Teams just can’t quit natural talent. And a few organizations are always willing to believe they can be the ones to unlock it.
The Blue Jays wanted to start working with Jiménez as soon as possible, and this week they brought him back on another minor-league contract.
He’s still only 29 years old. The raw strength that made him one of baseball’s most feared prospects hasn’t disappeared — even if the results have.
He has to figure out how to stay healthy and turn those high exit velocities back into extra-base hits, the way he did earlier in his career.
Advertisement
For Toronto, there’s little downside. They’ll send him to the minors, let him work through spring training, and see if something clicks. If it does, they could end up with a low-cost power bat that helps the reigning champions.
White Sox fans have every reason to be skeptical. But if the Milwaukee Brewers can revive Andrew Vaughn seemingly overnight, then maybe — just maybe — Eloy Jiménez still has one more chapter left.