White Sox reportedly finalizing a new deal with their top prospect that could be extended past six years and will be a record for a player with no service time.
The Chicago White Sox are reportedly finalizing a new contract with their top prospect Eloy Jimenez. The report was first generated by Hector Gomez who also broke some other rumors earlier this year.
Conor Evans covered the initial rumor regarding Jimenez here at Southside Showdown and it was initially reported by Gomez that the Sox were close to an eight-year, $100 million extension. The reported extension is pending a physical per Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com and is expected to max out at eight years with a value between $75-80 million.
According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, the standard deal for Jimenez’s new contract will be for six years at $43 million. Jimenez’s contract will be a new record for a player with zero service time. The 22-year-old has yet to make his major league debut and will beat other players who received new contracts with zero service time in Jon Singleton and Scott Kingery.
Eloy Jimenez’s contract with the #WhiteSox is expected to max out at 8 years and valued between $75-80 million.
— Jesse Sanchez (@JesseSanchezMLB) March 20, 2019
Eloy Jimenez's $43M deal with the Chicago White Sox will smash the record for players with zero service time. It's the third such deal ever consummated. The first was Jon Singleton's $10M deal with Houston and the second Scott Kingery's $24M deal with Philadelphia last spring.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 20, 2019
With many Sox fans unhappy about the what happened with the franchise missing out on Manny Machado and Bryce Harper this offseason, they should be delighted to see that Jimenez will at least be with the team for many years to come. This should also put to bed those concerns from Sox fans that the front office is incompetent.
Yes, the Sox didn’t do a good job of sealing the deal and signing Machado or even make a run at Harper, but the front office isn’t allowing Jimenez the option to become a free agent after six years of service time. According to Ken Rosenthal, Jimenez’s deal will also include two club options. This could bring his total contract length to eight years as mentioned earlier according to Sanchez.
For Jimenez, he should be in the Sox lineup on Opening Day after his new contract. There’s no reason for the Sox to pay a player this much to start the season in Triple-A. Hopefully, with his new deal, this signals to other free agents for next offseason that the Sox are serious about having sustained success sooner rather than later.