The Chicago White Sox are making a rather curious decision in the handling of their top prospect.
According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the White Sox will not be calling up outfielder Eloy Jimenez, even after rosters expand in September.
The Chicago #WhiteSox will NOT call up prized prospect Eloy Jimenez in September, but are hardly alone among clubs executing the same strategy.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) August 31, 2018
The decision to delay Jimenez’s MLB debut has little to do with performance. The consensus top-ten MLB prospect has hit .341 with 22 home runs between Double-A and Triple-A this season, and the team itself admitted that he’s close to being MLB-ready. This almost certainly has to do with service time manipulation, as keeping Jimenez down now — and not calling him up until a few weeks into the 2019 season — would give the White Sox an extra year of team control down the line.
