Fantasy Baseball 2018 Prospect Watch: Eloy Jimenez

The White Sox acquired top prospect Eloy Jimenez last summer. How long before we see the young outfielder in a major-league game?

The Chicago White Sox are rebuilding but that doesn’t mean they are void of fantasy baseball talent. They did a good job loading up on young talent in the farm system. One of those players is outfield prospect Eloy Jimenez. While he won’t start the season in the majors, we should see him sooner rather than later.

Jimenez switched Chicago teams as a part of the Jose Quintana trade last summer. He was working his way up through the Cubs farm system before the trade. He hit a combined 24 home runs, 141 RBIs and .297 in Rookie and Single-A in his first three years with the Cubs.

In the second half of last year between High-A and Double-A for the White Sox, 47 games, Jimenez hit a combined 11 home runs, 33 RBI and .348. He showed good plate discipline, 241 total strikeouts in 1,147 at-bats.

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Jimenez will likely start the season in Double-A. I wouldn’t be surprised if he jumped to Triple-A after a couple of months. The way Jimenez has been hitting this spring will make it difficult for the front office to keep him away from the MLB.

Jimenez has made just four at-bats, five plate appearances, in three spring training games. But in that span, he has one triple, two home runs, three RBI and a .750 batting average. Even with the small sample size, you can see the skill that Jimenez has.

He was dealing with left patella tendinitis earlier this month, limiting his playing time the first week of spring training.

Jimenez has the ability to hit for power and contact, something that’s getting harder to find in fantasy drafts as more batters begin to sacrifice average for power. With the outfield the White Sox plan on starting the season with, Jimenez would be a huge upgrade. They have Avisail Garcia, Ryan Cordell and Adam Engel as their starters. Jimenez can easily take over for Cordell or Engel in center or left field.

However, with teams wanting to have that extra year of control of their young prospects, he won’t start the season in the majors. That doesn’t mean he should go undrafted, especially in dynasty leagues. He’s listed as the league’s No. 4 prospect.

Next: Yankees sign Neil Walker, fantasy impact

Jimenez is getting as much hype as Ronald Acuna. Both will garner a lot of interest in keeper, dynasty and deeper leagues. You just may have to wait a bit before getting a return from Jimenez this season.

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