Orioles decline club option on former White Sox star

The Orioles announced that they have declined their club option on outfielder/designated hitter Eloy Jiménez. They could have retained him for 2025 with a salary of $16.5M but will instead give him a $3M buyout and send him to free agency. The Sox are covering half of that buyout as part of the trade that sent him to Baltimore this summer.

The decision is an unsurprising one. Jiménez has occasionally been a potent slugger, but the injuries have piled up in recent years, and he just wrapped up the worst season of his career. The Orioles acquired him from the White Sox at the deadline, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle with a buy-low move, but it didn’t pan out. He finished the year with a .238/.289/.336 batting line and 78 wRC+.

Jiménez is one of the slower players in the league and doesn’t provide defensive value. He only spent eight innings on the field this year, and there were none with the Orioles. Given the limited profile, he really needs to be producing at the plate to be useful.

That has been the case before. Through the end of 2022, he was sporting a career line of .276/.327/.504 and a 123 wRC+. He was often injured during that time but a productive hitter when on the field. The Sox had given him a $43M extension before he even made his major league debut and he seemed to be making good on that investment for a while.

In 2023, he stayed healthy enough to get into 120 games, just two shy of his career high. But the results dipped, as his .272/.317/.441 line led to a 105 wRC+. As mentioned, his performance fell even further this year. As the Sox were playing out their historically bad season this year, they flipped him to the O’s at the deadline for minor league reliever Trey McGough, covering most of the money left on the contract to get the deal done.

Now, as a free agent, some clubs will undoubtedly take a chance on Jiménez based on his past performance. However, his poor health track record and recent struggles will limit him to a modest base salary, perhaps with incentives for him to potentially unlock if he can stay healthy and return to form. He is still reasonably young, turning 28 later this month, so a bounceback isn’t out of the question.