Eloy Jimenez fails to make Rays’ Opening Day roster

The Tampa Bay Rays have finalized their roster with Opening Day kicking off the season on March 27. However, the organization turned heads on Friday after announcing that designated hitter and outfielder, Eloy Jimenez will begin the season playing for the team’s Triple-A affiliate, the Durham Bulls.

Instead, infielder Curtis Mead made the final roster, which led to manager Kevin Cash demoting Jimenez to Triple-A, according to Rays reporter Ryan Bass. In a statement, Cash does admit that Jimenez could be promoted at some point in the season and help the team out later on.

“(Eloy’s) not going to make our club as it stands right now,” Kevin Cash said. “He is going to go to Durham. Couldn’t be more pleased with the way Eloy carried himself, and the bat started to come to life here a little bit later, which we were confident that it would. I think if you look at everybody that was coming in on the roster, you got to really appreciate what Curtis Mead has done, so it made some difficult decisions, but for Eloy to go down there, continue the progress and the work that he put in this offseason, for our Durham club, I mean, he could be huge for us at any point during the season.”

The 28-year-old DH played in 98 games last season for the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles. Once the season concluded, Jimenez signed a one-year, $2 million contract with the Rays. It was believed he’d serve as Tampa Bay’s go-to designated hitter, but Curtis Mead has seemingly impressed the coaching staff enough to go a different route.

Jimenez finished the 2024 campaign with a .238 batting average while recording six home runs, and 23 RBIs. All of which are career lows for him, as he struggled much throughout last season.

As for Mead, the 24-year-old infielder is primed for a bigger role on the Rays’ roster. He’s been considered one of the club’s top prospects for a few years now and is finally being rewarded for his efforts. He’s been on and off the MLB roster in both the 2023 and 2024 seasons, but this is the first time in his career that he’ll be on the Opening Day roster.