White Sox Extend Eloy Jimenez, Baseball Salary Systems Still Broken
News broke today that the White Sox have agreed to a deal with their top prospect, outfielder Eloy Jimenez. Jimenez is a power hitting 22-year-old out of the Dominican Republic who came to the White Sox and the South Side of Chicago through the North Side Chicago Cubs. This deal seems to indicate that the highly regarded prospect, who has been ranked among baseball’s top 10-15 prospects for year of the last three years, will be able to start the season in the Majors, rather than be subject to silly service time manipulation that has been en vogue in recent years.
The early indications are that Jimenez has signed on to earn $42.5M over his next 6 years, but at the cost of two club option years, each valued at ~$17M per year. This is obviously a lot of money and will ensure that Jimenez (and his family) are set for the foreseeable future. They arguably already were so, since Jimenez signed for $2.8M as a 16-year old in 2013. However, an extra $42.5M never hurt.
The deal is another data point in what is a disturbing trend in the industry: service time manipulation and cheap labor exploitation. The White Sox let Jimenez hit .355 (with a .996 OPS) in AAA while Nicky Delmonico hit .215 (.696) in the Majors rather than promote the better player because they were concerned about Jimenez’s potential free agent status in 2025. Before this deal, they were likely to do the same thing for the first two weeks of the season, delaying Jimenez’s free agency until after the 2026 season. So while the deal will often be reported as buying out 2 of Jimenez’s potential free agent years, the reality is that Jimenez has gotten himself more quickly to the veteran payscale by accepting the deal.
Put another way, provided Jimenez turns into anything resembling a star, he will likely be a free agent after the 2027 season (after the White Sox exercise those two options) rather than the 2026 season.
In the context of yet-to-debut contracts, this one is the largest ever given out. You may remember the Phillies committing $24M to Scott Kingery about this time last year, or the Astros committing to Jon Singleton for $10M before his debut in 2014. As far as I can tell, those are the only two contracts ever given out before a player debuts. This one is obviously larger than those. Those deals hardly look favorable for the team, but other deals (namely the Evan Longoria deal) with young players have turned into extremely team friendly pacts.
For context though, the pre-Free Agent contracts Manny Machado and Nolan Arenado can provide some context on what Eloy could have expected to earn through baseball’s arbitration system. Both are among baseball’s top position players, so these two comparisons are likely the high end of the Jimenez’s earnings potential. However, Machado (himself a former top 10 prospect) earned roughly $34M before this offseason, while Nolan Arenado (before he signed his massive extension recently) was to earn something like $60M. Anthony Rendon will earn something like $49M before hitting free agency.
So, by giving Eloy $43M in his “pre-free-agency” next 6 years, the White Sox have effectively paid him like a star. In that context, this deal should not be viewed as the White Sox being cheap. Rather, it’s a reflection of baseball’s broken salary system that only pays (some) veteran players their worth. This is a slight discount on what the White Sox would have paid Jimenez before he came of free agency age, regardless of how they got there.
Eloy Jimenez just became a rich man and baseball is better for it. We all get to see that awesome left-handed stroke on March 28, 2019, rather than April 28.
-Sean Morash
