White Sox’ no. 1 prospect Eloy Jimenez is likely to be removed from Dominican Winter League play following a recent quad injury, Bruce Levine of WSCR-AM reports. While the injury happened fairly close to the end of Jimenez’s scheduled playing time this offseason, it’s still of some concern for the club as the 22-year-old outfielder continues to move closer to his major league entrance in 2019.
Jimenez made a considerable jump from Double-A Birmingham to Triple-A Charlotte in 2018. He obliterated the competition at both levels and capped his season with a combined .337/.384/.577 with 22 home runs, 75 RBI and a .960 OPS through 456 plate appearances. By season’s end, he not only topped the charts in the White Sox’ own farm system, but was ranked first among all outfield prospects and third among all MLB prospects (per MLB Pipeline).
This isn’t Jimenez’s first brush with injury, though he has yet to contract anything serious enough to slow his rocket-like ascent through the minors en route to his first major-league gig. The young slugger was sidelined for several weeks with a left adductor strain in July and suffered some late-season flu symptoms in August, but even with this most recent complication, remains on track for his debut in the spring of 2019.
