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The Chicago White Sox and star prospect Eloy Jimenez have reached a six-year, $43 million dollar extension with a pair of club options that could bring the total value of the contract to a maximum of $77 million:
Eloy deal with #WhiteSox will be six years, $43M with two club options, source tells The Athletic.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) March 20, 2019
BREAKING NEWS: The White Sox are close to an agreement with Eloy Jimenez for an 8-year extension that would pay him between 65-70 US$ Million. With Incentives the contract could get to the 75-80 million Range. Source says deal is pending only a Physical.@z101digital @ZDeportes
— Héctor Gómez (@hgomez27) March 20, 2019
Eloy Jimenez’s deal with the Chicago White Sox will be for six years and $43 million, as @Ken_Rosenthal said. It will include a pair of club options and can max out around $77 million, sources tell ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 20, 2019
Jimenez is the top prospect in the White Sox system and is the No. 3 prospect overall in MLB Pipeline's Top 100. He has not played a single game in the major leagues, though he was the focus of Spring Training for the South Siders.
In fact, this new contract easily surpasses the previous record for guaranteed money given to a player with no service time, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN:
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Eloy Jimenez's $43M deal with the Chicago White Sox will smash the record for players with zero service time. It's the third such deal ever consummated. The first was Jon Singleton's $10M deal with Houston and the second Scott Kingery's $24M deal with Philadelphia last spring.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 20, 2019
Jimenez might be the second-best hitting prospect behind Vladimir Guerrero Jr, who is the No.1 overall prospect according to MLB Pipeline.
The 22-year-old hit .337 with 22 homers in 416 at-bats between Double-A Birmingham and Triple-A Charlotte last season. He was expected to begin the season in the minor leagues so that the White Sox could garner more years of team control, but now that he is locked up for at least six years he should begin the regular season with the big-league club next week.
Originally drafted and developed on the North Side of Chicago with the Cubs, Jimenez was the prize of a 2017 trade between the two crosstown rivals that sent Jose Quintana to the Cubs. The White Sox also acquired top pitching prospect Dylan Cease in that trade.
Even though the White Sox missed out on Manny Machado this winter, they are clearly willing to get aggressive in securing the future with respect to their homegrown talent.
