This story was excerpted from Jake Rill's Orioles Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Over the past two weeks, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde has had to learn a lot of new faces in his clubhouse. That’s what happens when a team makes seven trades in five days leading up to the July 30 Trade Deadline.

However, one of Baltimore’s primary Deadline acquisitions was a player already quite familiar to Hyde -- Eloy Jiménez, a 27-year-old slugger who spent his first 5 1/2 big league seasons with the White Sox before getting traded to the O’s.

It wasn’t the first time Jiménez had been dealt: He was part of an all-Chicago trade in July 2017, when the Sox acquired four players (including Jiménez) and sent left-hander Jose Quintana to the Cubs.

Jiménez, a top prospect at the time, signed with the Cubs out of the Dominican Republic in August 2013 -- when Hyde was overseeing the organization’s farm system as the director of player development.

“I’ve known Eloy since he was 16, back before he got to the States, back when he was a top prospect in all of baseball, and I’ve followed his career because I’ve known him for so long,” Hyde said after Jiménez joined the O’s in Cleveland on Thursday. “One thing that Eloy has always been able to do is really, really hit. And be a hitter first, but also have huge power. And be able to change the game with one swing, but also take really good at-bats.

“We’re hoping that he can bring that for us here.”

So far, the low-risk, high-upside trade for Jiménez has worked out quite well for the Orioles.

Through Jiménez’s first four games for Baltimore, he is 6-for-12 (.500) with a double and two RBIs. Four of those hits had an exit velocity of 100.8 mph or harder, per Statcast, including a 112 mph single during his 1-for-3 showing in Tuesday’s 5-2 loss to the Blue Jays.

The O’s sent only Minor League left-hander Trey McGough to Chicago in exchange for Jiménez, who has team options for each of the next two seasons ($16.5 million for '25 and $18.5 million for '26).

Jiménez credited his early work with hitting coaches Matt Borgschulte and Ryan Fuller -- as well as the winning environment he entered after previously playing for the struggling Sox -- for the hot start to his new chapter. He went from the last-place team in the American League Central to one eyeing a second consecutive AL East title.

“The energy that they have, they pump me up,” Jiménez said after Sunday’s series finale in Cleveland. “I feel really good. I feel like I’ve been playing here for a year. And I just have, like, three days here. To be able to feel like that, it tells you something.”

For much of Jiménez’s MLB career, he’s been banged up in some manner. He’s still not 100 percent physically, per Hyde, after dealing with a left hamstring injury earlier this season. The ailment might have contributed to Jiménez’s .642 OPS over his first 65 games.

While Jiménez works to get back to full strength, he’ll exclusively be a designated hitter/pinch-hitter for Baltimore and won’t play any outfield. But he’s already proving he could be a key contributor in that role.

Although Jiménez said he’ll miss members of the White Sox organization -- the only club he had known in his big league life -- he’s excited by the energy of the young, successful O’s squad.

“We have a group of good talent -- great talent -- and so young,” Jiménez said. “This gives you a little bit of good vibes. When you come onto a new team, that’s what you want to see, and that’s what you want to feel. So, for me, that is good.”