There might not be much more time before Eloy Jimenez is playing for the White Sox. But in the meantime, he's going to get some extra action in.
Jimenez, the White Sox top-ranked prospect and the No. 3 prospect in baseball, will play in the Dominican Winter League for the second offseason in a row, suiting up for the Gigantes del Cibao, that team announced Monday.
The White Sox added some more specifics, that Jimenez is scheduled to debut for the Gigantes on Friday and that he's expected to be with the team for four to five weeks.
Jimenez played for the Gigantes last winter, doing his now-typical amount of statistical damage: a .368/.443/.676 slash line with four homers and 21 RBIs in just 19 games.
That preceded his stellar 2018 season in the White Sox organization, where he slashed .337/.384/.577 with 22 homers and 75 RBIs in 108 games between Double-A Birmingham and Triple-A Charlotte.
Jimenez is expected to reach the major leagues early on in the 2019 campaign, but earlier this month at the GM Meetings, general manager Rick Hahn wouldn't rule out Jimenez making the team's Opening Day roster.
MLB
"Let's see how he looks when he gets to camp and we'll go from there," Hahn said. "Nothing has changed since Sept. 1 but let's see what happens come February and March.
"Eloy has been saying since A-ball that he's ready, which is wonderful and exactly where I want him to be. We'd much rather try to reign a guy back than try to prod him forward. Eloy's level of confidence and enthusiasm for being in the big leagues is wonderful.
"I think right now he's in very good spirits. He looks great. He's working out and been working on his nutrition. I know he's planning to come to camp eager to show everybody what he's capable of doing."
While the possibility apparently exists for Jimenez to impress enough to make his way onto the Opening Day roster, the overwhelming logic that goes along with baseball's financial reality would dictate that the White Sox will probably treat Jimenez much like the Cubs treated Kris Bryant back in 2015, waiting just a few weeks into the season to bring him up to the majors.
Until then, if you're looking for your Eloy fix, you can get whatever the Dominican Winter League equivalent of MiLB.TV is.
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