Eloy Jimenez aquired

[Tony-OH]

18 hours ago, now said:

Jesus Aguilar 2.0

That was the first thing I thought of. I guess they plan to play Adley more at catcher down the stretch here and not play McCann as much and that would open up right-handed DH at bats. the orioles don't want to bring up Coby until he can play fulltime, so they choose Holliday over him once again, probably because of defense.

I mean they gave up nothing and basically the fact that they are willing to take on salary for part-time roles is actually something interesting with the new ownership. 

[Safelykept]

1 hour ago, interloper said:

That's it. He'll just platoon with O'Hearn. That's how you get the most out of him. Mayyyyybe a start in RF if Tony needs a break. 

Hits RHP pretty good too. Could be a nice PH off the bench late against anybody( Delmon Young)?

[Say O!]

With Mullins/Holliday/Cowser hitting in close sequential proximity in the batting order, I could envision Eloy as RH pinch hit option if opposing teams throw high leverage left handed relief.  How many times will this type of scenario come up rest of season?  Might be able to count on one hand, but maybe could be additional 1-2 wins WPA and that could be difference between 1st place and wildcard. 

[ChuckS]

Maybe this was brought up before, but his career splits favor RHP including a significant gap in slugging percentage.  

He's been better against LHP this year, but in 46 at bats.  Kind of a worthless sample size. 

Makes this addition even more head scratching.  You are adding a player with no positional flexibility who hasn't hit a ton since 2022, and his playing time will come at the expense of multiple players (Kjerstad, Cowser, Mullins for certain) and hurts their ability to add Mayo to the roster. 

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, ChuckS said:

Maybe this was brought up before, but his career splits favor RHP including a significant gap in slugging percentage.  

He's been better against LHP this year, but in 46 at bats.  Kind of a worthless sample size. 

Makes this addition even more head scratching.  You are adding a player with no positional flexibility who hasn't hit a ton since 2022, and his playing time will come at the expense of multiple players (Kjerstad, Cowser, Mullins for certain) and hurts their ability to add Mayo to the roster. 

The part about Mayo is a plus for management.

[Can_of_corn]

1 hour ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Eloy Jimenez is only 1 year and a few days older than Stowers.  Supposedly... How can he not play RF?

He's slower than McCann.

[LookitsPuck]

3 minutes ago, ChuckS said:

Maybe this was brought up before, but his career splits favor RHP including a significant gap in slugging percentage.  

He's been better against LHP this year, but in 46 at bats.  Kind of a worthless sample size. 

Makes this addition even more head scratching.  You are adding a player with no positional flexibility who hasn't hit a ton since 2022, and his playing time will come at the expense of multiple players (Kjerstad, Cowser, Mullins for certain) and hurts their ability to add Mayo to the roster. 

Mayo's defensive issues at 3B are what is hurting adding Mayo to the roster. He simply can't play 3B for a team that has so many contact/groundball pitchers. Once he gets better, sure. But it's extremely telling that they have Mayo focusing on 1B right now. 

If you look at Eloy strictly as a situational DH/PH and nothing more/less, then it's fine. His statcast numbers are interesting if the Orioles legitimately feel that he's a mechanic change away from being fixed. A good comp would be Aaron Hicks. 188 BA/524 OPS w/ the Yanks, 275/806 OPS w/ the O's. The Orioles did comparably w/ O'Hearn. 239 BA/611 OPS w/ the Royals prior to coming over to the O's (283/807). 

Is every hitter that is a semi-project fixable in short order? No. But we'll see. It's a low risk/high reward type of situation. He's also only 27. Just don't let him play the field much/if at all. 

[maybenxtyr]

1 hour ago, E-D-D-I-E said:

You mean like they have done with all the other prospects? They have jerked every one of them around.

Is this serious?

[ChuckS]

6 minutes ago, LookitsPuck said:

Mayo's defensive issues at 3B are what is hurting adding Mayo to the roster. He simply can't play 3B for a team that has so many contact/groundball pitchers. Once he gets better, sure. But it's extremely telling that they have Mayo focusing on 1B right now. 

If you look at Eloy strictly as a situational DH/PH and nothing more/less, then it's fine. His statcast numbers are interesting if the Orioles legitimately feel that he's a mechanic change away from being fixed. A good comp would be Aaron Hicks. 188 BA/524 OPS w/ the Yanks, 275/806 OPS w/ the O's. The Orioles did comparably w/ O'Hearn. 239 BA/611 OPS w/ the Royals prior to coming over to the O's (283/807). 

Is every hitter that is a semi-project fixable in short order? No. But we'll see. It's a low risk/high reward type of situation. He's also only 27. Just don't let him play the field much/if at all. 

Okay, but the DH slot isn't exactly open.  You have O'Hearn, Mountcastle, Santander, Kjerstad, and Rutschman who all get regular at bats there.  The other things those players all have in common, is that they have been good hitters in 2024. 

Jimenez does not fit a need and he has not been good in 2024.  That's great that he's relatively young, and that's fine that he has potential to improve.  For a team with a gaping hole in the middle of the order and needs help at DH/1B, maybe he would be worth consideration, but this reminds me way too much of Aguilar two years ago. 

Edited July 31 by ChuckS

[LookitsPuck]

Just now, ChuckS said:

Okay, but the DH slot isn't exactly open.  You have O'Hearn, Mountcastle, Santander, Kjerstad, and Rutschman who all get regular at bats there.  The other things those players all have in common, is that they have been good hitters in 2024. 

Jimenez does not fit a need and he has not been good in 2024.  That's fine that he's young, and that's fine that he has potential to improve.  For a team with a gaping hole in the middle of the order and need help at DH/1B, maybe he would be worth consideration, but this reminds way too much of Aguilar two years ago. 

Which is why I said PH/DH. 

Aguilar was older and didn't really have anything intriguing going for him in his statcast numbers and didn't have much in ways of splits, too. But Aguilar is definitely an example of somebody that didn't work out, there are examples of the O's picking up guys that did work out making some mechanical tweaks. I'd really like to be a fly on the walls with what Borgschulte and Fuller say about Jimenez. 

[sportsfan8703]

16 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

He's slower than McCann.

Is that because he's been injured this year?  I don't know.

Edited July 31 by sportsfan8703

[Can_of_corn]

11 minutes ago, LookitsPuck said:

Mayo's defensive issues at 3B are what is hurting adding Mayo to the roster. He simply can't play 3B for a team that has so many contact/groundball pitchers. Once he gets better, sure. But it's extremely telling that they have Mayo focusing on 1B right now. 

If you look at Eloy strictly as a situational DH/PH and nothing more/less, then it's fine. His statcast numbers are interesting if the Orioles legitimately feel that he's a mechanic change away from being fixed. A good comp would be Aaron Hicks. 188 BA/524 OPS w/ the Yanks, 275/806 OPS w/ the O's. The Orioles did comparably w/ O'Hearn. 239 BA/611 OPS w/ the Royals prior to coming over to the O's (283/807). 

Is every hitter that is a semi-project fixable in short order? No. But we'll see. It's a low risk/high reward type of situation. He's also only 27. Just don't let him play the field much/if at all. 

Hicks could play outfield.

 

This guy can't field, can't run and doesn't mash lefties.

 

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Is that because he's been injured this year?  I don't know.

I don't care why.

Evidently he gets hurt if he so much as stands in the outfield grass.

[sportsfan8703]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

I don't care why.

Evidently he gets hurt if he so much as stands in the outfield grass.

Left hamstring, and left abdominal injury.  He's pretty beat up.  Just a RH DH vs LHP this year.  That's all we need him for.  

[LookitsPuck]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

Hicks could play outfield.

 

This guy can't field, can't run and doesn't mash lefties.

 

Eh, Hicks could play the OF, but he wasn't great at it. I will agree that Eloy isn't remotely as flexible as Hicks in terms of OF ability nor speed.

But I never said that was the case. I've always said keep Eloy out of the field and only DH/PH him. I like the upside if there's a mechanical unlock. If not, you have a $3m buyout, who cares. Just don't let Hyde get veteran happy putting him in over better options.