Sic Transit Eloy Jiménez

The trade deadline isn’t a coda to this White Sox season — this debacle, this farce, this insult to tire fires — because the song isn’t over yet. There’s still another third of the way to go, another verse on the road to 120 losses. No, in songwriting terms this is a bridge, a shift to a minor key followed by a saxophone solo, meant to put you in the mood for a modulation and the big finish.

The White Sox aren’t trading Garrett Crochet. They are trading one of the two big outfielders who were supposed to turn into a legendary Chicago sports double act, alongside Jordan and Pippen, Toews and Kane, Perry and Singletary. But they’re not trading Luis Robert Jr.

Remember, all the way back in 2019, when Eloy Jiménez was one of the top five prospects in baseball? When securing his future commitment to the franchise was so important that the White Sox only allowed him to make his major league debut after he signed a six-year contract extension with two team options? Yeah, well after years of injuries and disappointment and recriminations, Jiménez is headed to Baltimore in exchange for minor league left-hander Trey McGough.

Hit it, Clarence!

Never for a minute did this iteration of White Sox leadership look like it was destined for success. And of all that’s happened under Chris Getz’s administration, from the bizarre to the obsolete to the defeatist, it’s hard to disagree with trading Jiménez now. Jiménez has shown occasional fits of greatness, from his 31-homer rookie season to a sophomore campaign that totaled 1.5 WAR in just 55 games. But the poor man has been though injury after injury. He’s torn or strained or tweaked just about every bit of muscle and connective tissue from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. He tore a pectoral muscle chasing a fly ball in March 2021, and since then he’s played just 324 games across almost four seasons.

Along the way, his power backed up, and for a DH (and now that he’s out of Chicago, let’s stop kidding ourselves: he was a DH, no matter where a series of White Sox managers was forced to play him) who doesn’t walk much, well, power is everything.

As the injuries mounted, Jiménez — never an elevate-and-celebrate type of hitter to start with — only beat the ball into the ground more and more. This year, he’s hitting just .240/.297/.345, with the third-highest groundball rate in baseball among hitters with at least 200 PA. (One of the two guys ahead of him, Jiménez’s former teammate Tim Anderson, got cut by the Marlins almost four weeks ago.)

That big, splashy contract Jiménez signed in 2019 is winding down to the end of its run. The big man, who is still only 27 despite having lived and died 100 major league careers’ worth to this point, is making $13.833 million this year, with a team option for $16.5 million in 2025. Given the market value of a DH with a wRC+ of 80, smart money is on the Orioles taking the $3 million buyout.

It’s sad to see the end of a thing that once held so much promise. It stinks of wasted potential, unrealized because of fate (probably), injury (definitely), and a team that didn’t know how to get the best out of the players it had.

Now that the Orioles have Jiménez, it raises the obvious question of what Baltimore — which has no shortage of outfield/DH types in its organization — wants with him. Or with Austin Slater, for that matter, who was acquired from Cincinnati moments before the deadline. Particularly because the Orioles just sent out another right-handed outfielder — another right-handed outfielder named Austin, even — in the Seranthony Domínguez trade last week.

Speaking for Jiménez first, the Orioles do have a good track record for fixing iffy power bats. Just last year, they turned Ryan O’Hearn from a guy who couldn’t even stick on the bench for a bad Royals team into a middle-of-the-order hitter in a playoff-bound lineup. And they’re confident in their own hitting pedagogy: Baltimore just spent a first-round pick on North Carolina outfielder Vance Honeycutt, who could be a star two-way player if his swing didn’t have more gaps than a spaghetti strainer. Perhaps they see something redeemable in Jiménez, who had a 105 wRC+ as recently as last year.

Finding out will cost them McGough, a 26-year-old former minor league Rule 5 pick. In his first full season in the bullpen, he’s got a 1.99 ERA across Double-A and Triple-A, with 55 strikeouts in 54 1/3 innings. McGough probably isn’t a future closer or anything, but he’s close to the big leagues and good enough to warrant a numbered ranking (37th) on last month’s Orioles top prospect list. That’s a future value grade of 35+.

Slater comes to Baltimore having spent only a month in Cincinnati after parts of eight seasons with the Giants. The reason you’d want Slater after just trading Austin Hays is that the former can play a credible center field. Unfortunately, Slater’s bat seems to have gone sour in the past year; after four straight seasons of above-average offensive production, he’s slugging just .222 this season.

But the Orioles were able to pick up not only Slater but shortstop Livan Soto and cash considerations from the Reds in exchange for either cash considerations or a player to be named later. Which is code for nothing — Cash Considerations is not getting the Full Harry Chiti Treatment.

Soto is walking a lot in the minors but not hitting for power (.280/.378/.376 in 77 Triple-A games across three organizations so far this year), but he’s got another option year left after this one, he can play across the infield, and he just turned 24.

And the Orioles clearly like him — this is the third time they’ve acquired Soto in the past six months. Baltimore picked him up off waivers from the Angels in February, then lost him back to the Angels 10 days later, then plucked him off the Angels’ waiver wire again in April, then eight days later put him back on waivers and lost him to the Reds, who DFA’d Soto this morning. Actually, I’ve changed my mind. The more I think about the Orioles repeatedly claiming and cutting Soto, the more it looks like some sick game, and it feels voyeuristic to watch.

We’ll see how the Orioles, who were one of the more active teams at the deadline, fit all these pieces on the 40-man roster, and how they manage to get at-bats for Jiménez, let alone Slater. (That’s assuming Slater doesn’t get cut loose in the upcoming roster crunch.) Regardless, the Orioles are apparently leaving no stone unturned in their pursuit of outfield help. As they should. If they need a reminder of how quickly a promising young team can unravel, they know who to call.