The pros and cons of the White Sox trading Eloy Jimenez

There was a lot of excitement when the White Sox started their rebuild at the end of the 2016 season. One of the most exciting moves that they made was a trade with the Chicago Cubs. The White Sox sent former All-Star closer Jose Quintana to the Cubs early in the rebuild and the return was truly exciting as the White Sox landed Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease along with two other prospects.

Well, although Dylan Cease had a mediocre 2023 season, he is still a very good pitcher and Jimenez has an incredible amount of power in his bat. If you look back at that trade, it is clear that the White Sox won it going away.

The problem is that we know how quickly the rebuild turned sideways and the White Sox have a lot of changes on deck. For one, Dylan Cease's name is getting much attention on the trade block. It felt like he would be dealt at the deadline last year but he never was.

The Chicago White Sox are receiving offers for slugger Eloy Jimenez

Now, a lot of teams are looking for him as they want to bolster their starting rotations ahead of the 2024 season. Eloy Jimenez might be on the move as well. New GM Chris Getz mentioned him as someone who is already generating a ton of interest.

There is a lot to like about Jimenez which is why a few teams might be interested in him. There is also a lot to be worried about with him given his health issues which is why a team might hesitate.

For the same reasons, the White Sox should be thinking twice about this idea as well. There are a lot of pros and cons to this type of move.

Pros

There are a few pros to the White Sox trading Eloy Jimenez. For one, he is always hurt. It seems as if he is just going to be the type of player who never has a 140+ game season because it is always something. Even when it truly isn't his fault, there is always something. In his young career, he has already dealt with shoulder, pectoral, knee, and ankle injuries along with having to have his appendix removed. The guy is just snakebit.

It is hard to stay consistent when you are missing a lot of time with regularity. Jimenez played in 122 games during his rookie year. He played in 120 in 2023. Those are his two most by far. The only year he played a high percentage of the games was 2020 when he played in 55 out of 60 games, but that season was shortened due to COVID, so it is hard to draw too many conclusions there.

Jimenez is also pretty limited to being a DH, although he COULD play in left if there weren't any other options. The White Sox have a lot of players like that so it would free up some room if they moved on from him via a trade.

Cons

The biggest con to trading Jimenez is losing his bat. He had a 2023 slash line of .275/.324/.487 with an OPS of .811. Eloy also has 89 home runs in 436 games played which is a level of power that is hard to come by even in the best of times. The man hits and hits for power frequently, but he hasn't reached his ceiling yet because of all the injuries.

If he does ever find a way to stay healthy for a long period, however, he might put up MVP-caliber offensive numbers. It would certainly help if he had a good team around him and you'd hate to see him dominate to that level with a different team.

Jimenez also has something that you can't measure and that is a strong make-up. He is always in a good mood and trying to have fun. When things are going well for him, he makes you enjoy being a baseball fan. Whoever acquired him in a trade would love that about him almost immediately as he is just good vibes to have in a clubhouse.

The fact that the White Sox are even in these conversations is so sad as a fan. They should be trying to win instead of trading all of their talent but this is all on them and product of the organization's own missteps. They have nobody to blame but themselves. If Eloy is traded, it will be fun to watch him from afar.