White Sox: 3 Observations from Opening Day Loss to Kansas City

Eloy Jimenez hitless in major league debut

The day Sox fans had been waiting for finally arrived on Thursday when Eloy Jimenez made his major league debut. It would be a lackluster debut for the third overall prospect in MLB, however. Jimenez went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts but did reach base after being hit by a pitch.

For Jimenez, he was unable to make adjustments to being seemingly pitched around as Keller kept him off balance with a steady diet of sliders. However, Jimenez would later admit that he anxious in his major league debut for the Sox. This very well could have been the case for the 22-year-old outfielder from the Dominican Rebuplic.

Hitting fifth in the order shouldn’t be a problem for Jimenez as it doesn’t put too much pressure on him. But he will need to calm himself going forward as there will be many more teams that choose to pitch around the talented slugger. Jimenez did get off to a slow start this past Spring Training and hopefully, his performance on Thursday doesn’t become a common occurrence soon.

It’s entirely too early for any Sox fan to panic about Jimenez based off of one major league game. The Sox offense collectively couldn’t do much against Keller on Opening Day and Jimenez shouldn’t get most of the blame for their lack of production. Soon enough, Jimenez will show why so many Sox fans had been anticipating his arrival to the team since last Summer.