White Sox' Hahn: Eloy injury prone label ‘lazy analysis'

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General manager Rick Hahn took issue with Eloy Jiménez being labeled as 'injury prone' in wake of the White Sox slugger going down with a hamstring injury.

Hahn, who met the media for 20 minutes Tuesday, said he caught wind of "lazy analysis” characterizing Jiménez as such.

“Couldn’t be further from the truth in terms of the fact that he’s missing significant time this year and last year,” Hahn said, “that’s the extent that you can call the guy injury prone.”

Jiménez is expected to miss the next 6-8 weeks after undergoing surgery Tuesday for a torn hamstring tendon behind his right knee.

“That's just a moniker that again, people try to besmirch a guy's ability with an unfair label to put on someone like that,” Hahn added, “whether they're just spouting stuff told by them to others or what. 

“It's unfair and inappropriate.”

Jiménez injured the hamstring Sunday while running to first base on a groundball during a loss to the Twins. The Sox are "confident" in the 6-to-8-week timeline for his recovery, Hahn said, but he'll obviously be out for the foreseeable future.

Jiménez was limited to 55 games last year after rupturing his left pectoral tendon during spring training, leaping for a home run ball during a Cactus League game.

He appeared in all but five games during the shortened 60-game 2020 season, and in 2019 played in 122 games, going on the IL twice.

At the least, he has yet to prove he can stay healthy for a full 162-game campaign

“The thing in Glendale last year was just a bad decision trying to catch an uncatchable ball in a spring training game,” Hahn said. “That’s just being overly ambitious."

The circumstances of this season also may not have helped.

Players had roughly three weeks to ramp up for the season during an abbreviated, post-lockout spring training — half the time of a typical year. The Sox have been hit hard by injuries since the regular season started.

Jiménez, Lance Lynn, Joe Kelly, Yoán Moncada and Garrett Crochet — who’s out for the season — are among the eight Sox players on the IL. Lucas Giolito was activated off of it Sunday.

"This year, trying to get to a level he barely accessed all year," Hahn said of Jiménez. "That’s more a guy like you said trying to do everything he can to help his team win, even if it’s perhaps not the right decision at the time.

"That’s not a guy who is injury prone."

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