DH Jiménez agrees to join Rays on Minor League deal (source)

Hoping to rejuvenate his bat, designated hitter Eloy Jiménez agreed to a Minor League deal with the Rays, a source told MLB.com's Mark Feinsand on Monday. The club has not confirmed.

Jiménez is coming off a tough season, producing just six homers with a career-low .626 OPS over 98 games between the White Sox and Orioles, who acquired him from Chicago at the Trade Deadline. He became a free agent when Baltimore declined his $16.5 million club option for 2025.

The right-handed slugger was once one of baseball’s top prospects, peaking at No. 3 overall on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 list before the 2019 season. The White Sox inked him to a six-year, $43 million contract extension in March 2019, making him the third player in history to sign an extension before his MLB debut.

Jiménez lived up to the hype over his first two seasons, recording 45 homers with 120 RBIs and an .848 OPS in 177 games across 2019-20 and earning a Silver Slugger Award at the end of the shortened '20 campaign. However, his offensive production has declined over the past four years (50 homers, .745 OPS) while the injuries have piled up, and he has essentially become a full-time designated hitter due to his defensive limitations.

Jiménez missed the first 99 games of the 2021 season after sustaining a rupture of his left pectoral tendon during Spring Training. The following year, a torn hamstring tendon behind his right knee cost him another 65 games.

Jiménez made two trips to the injured list in 2023, the first with a left hamstring strain and the second after undergoing an appendectomy. He made two more in '24, going on the IL with a left adductor strain in April and a left hamstring strain in May.

His tenure with the White Sox came to an end on July 30 when they traded him to the O's for Minor League pitcher Trey McGough, but Jiménez struggled over 33 games in a Baltimore uniform, recording just one homer with a .586 OPS.