Though it didn't create a ton of waves as a pre-Christmas, post-Winter Meetings minor league signing, the Rays did make an important move that has a chance to shake up their fortunes in 2025: they signed former White Sox and Orioles slugger Eloy Jiménez.
News: DH Eloy Jimenez and the Tampa Bay Rays are in agreement on a minor league deal, sources tell ESPN. Jimenez, 28, played for the White Sox and Orioles this year and hopes to rebuild his career with a Rays team that has high aspirations in the American League East.
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) December 23, 2024
The deal comes with a non-roster invite to spring training, and is worth upwards of $4 million if Jiménez can make the roster. He's coming off a down season in 2024, but he'll be competing with Christopher Morel and Jonathan Aranda, among others, for the Rays' primary DH job next year.
Though he never quite lived up to his top prospect billing, Jiménez still has plenty of untapped upside that the Rays are hoping to unlock.
Jiménez brings home run threat to lineup that lacks big time power
Last year, the Rays ranked 28th in home runs. They were ahead of only the historically bad Chicago White Sox and the Washington Nationals, who scored 56 more runs than they did.
Given their small-market status and the fact that they'll be playing in a literal minor league ballpark next season while awaiting restorations to Tropicana Field, they were always going to have a tough time attracting marquee talent for their lineup this offseason. Hence, they resorted to the bargain bin side of free agency.
Jiménez was with the White Sox for five-and-a-half seasons before getting dumped at the 2024 trade deadline in a trade with the Orioles. He had a strong first month in his new home (.724 OPS in August), though he went 1-for-24 in 10 games in September and was optioned to Baltimore’s Triple-A affiliate at the end of the season. He didn’t make their Wild Card round roster, and the Orioles naturally declined his $16.5-million team option ahead of free agency.
At this point in his career, Jiménez is a designated hitter. He’s been worth a comically bad -18 Outs Above Average (OAA) in his career, earning distinctly negative marks for both his arm and range in the outfield. He played all of eight innings in the field in 2024, and none after being traded to the Orioles.
Of course, being a full-time DH means that you better be productive at the plate, and that’s where Jiménez’s profile presents some intriguing upside.
This was a down year all around for the 28-year-old—career-worst totals in wRC+ (78), ISO (.099), and BABIP (.285)—though he maintained a 90th-percentile exit velocity and hard-hit rate. His bat speed remains well above average, and that figures to remain true for the foreseeable future as he plays out the rest of his athletic prime.
The biggest question surrounding the Dominican slugger is his durability. He’s only played in 100 games in a season twice in his career, and has yet to exceed the 122 games he starred in as a rookie back in 2019. His injury history is a never-ending laundry list of lower body maladies.
Those factors—coming off a career-worst season and a lengthy injury history—pushed Jiménez to the discount bin. Make no mistake, though: this guy can still hit.
He’s never fluctuated much from his solid career strikeout (22.7%) and walk rates (6.5%). His batted-ball data also portends a positive future, as his 2024 ground-ball rate (48.6%), fly-ball rate (20.8%), and line-drive rate (25.0%) were all better than his career norms. Likewise, he began to use the whole field better than ever in 2024, posting a career-best opposite-field hit rate (23.6%).
The Rays generated a pitiful 97 wRC+ out of their DH spot last season. Jiménez isn't going to solve that on his own, but it's a promise sign that he's easily topped that mark in every season of his career except 2024, despite his health troubles.
He can't be the only thing Tampa Bay does to keep tinkering with its lineup, but there's a lot of upside in the under the radar signing the Rays just made.