Eloy

Jimenez

Jiménez last played Friday. He’s hit just .270/.331/.369 with two homers in 157 plate appearances for Durham this season.

After a slow start to the season, Jiménez has heated up of late, going 12-for-38 (.316) over his last 10 games with four extra base hits, one home run, and 12 RBI. That has also come with six strikeouts and three walks. There doesn’t appear to be any room for him in Tampa Bay, unless they want to play him in the outfield, but if he continues to hit like this, the Rays or some other MLB team will want to see if they can get him to produce at the big league level again.

No real surprises here since Jiménez was informed earlier this week that he wasn’t going to make Tampa Bay’s season-opening roster over former top prospect Curtis Mead.

Rays manager Kevin Cash praised Jiménez for his efforts this spring and said that the 28-year-old could be a “huge part” of Tampa Bay’s roster before the end of the year. Unfortunately for Jiménez, this is as much about how good Curtis Mead was this spring as it is that Jiménez is a poor defender and has struggled at the highest level over the past few seasons.

Curtis Mead’s spring success has complicated the situation for Jiménez in Tampa Bay, and it’s possible he’ll be left off the roster. A couple of more games like this would help his case, though. He’s batting .263/.300/.447 with an 11/1 K/BB in 40 plate appearances.

With Curtis Mead tearing the cover off the ball this spring, the Rays are likely looking for another way to keep Jiménez on the active roster. However, the 28-year-old is hitting just .208 with nine strikeouts to one walk in 26 plate appearances this spring. If he doesn’t make the team out of spring training, he will have to pass through waivers, where he can be claimed by any other team.

He had more hits today than his teammates totaled in 32 at-bats (three). All four hits were singles, and three were hard-hit balls, topping out at 110.9 mph. For the spring, Mead is 14-for-18 with a homer. He wasn’t supposed to be much of a threat to make the Rays, but he needs to be taken seriously now, even if it’s hard to see how he fits in the lineup. His inclusion would probably come at Eloy Jiménez’s expense, making him the righty DH alternative to Jonathan Aranda. He could also see time at second base against lefties.

Jiménez is 2-for-15 with six strikeouts in the early going. He’s been penciled in as part of the Rays’ roster since agreeing to a minor league deal in December, but he’s certainly not promised anything just yet. Curtis Mead’s hot start has presented the Rays with an alternative for a part-time right-handed bat.

It’s wild that Jiménez has to accept a minor-league deal, but here we are. The 28-year-old has battled multiple injuries since debuting as a 22-year-old in 2019 and has never built on the pedigree he showed in that rookie season where he slashed .267/.315/.513 with 31 home runs and 79 RBI in 122 games. Jiménez has played over 98 games in a season just once since then and seemed like a shell of himself in 2024, slashing .238/.289/.336 with just six home runs in 98 games with the White Sox and Orioles. Perhaps the Rays can kickstart a resurgence for Jiménez, but he has seen his fly ball rate and barrel rate fall for three straight seasons, so it’s fair to wonder if the injuries have sapped his juice. He’s going to be a DH-only in Tampa Bay, which will limit his fantasy value, but the Rays will also be playing their home games in a minor league stadium and be playing outside in Florida in the summer where the ball should be flying, so perhaps Jiménez can find some deep league value in the second half of the season.

Jiménez could have hit .400 after the trade to Baltimore, and the Orioles would still want no part of paying him $16.5 million next season. Also, he didn’t do that... he hit .232/.270/.316 and got sent down on Sept. 24. Jiménez is just 27, and there will be teams eager for the chance to turn his fortunes around. Still, he’ll likely have to settle for a modest one-year deal.