Eloy Jimenez is expected to miss most of the 2021 season, meaning the White Sox have some serious lineup adjusting to do.
The last thing any team wants to hear less than a week away from Opening Day is that its star player will miss significant time.
For the Chicago White Sox, that star player is Eloy Jimenez and the aforementioned significant time is most of the regular season.
Jimenez injured himself trying to scale the outfield wall catch a Spring Training home run, and now the next 5-6 months of his season have been wiped out. The expectation is that the White Sox outfielder will be out until at least August with a torn pectoral, which puts significant pressure on Chicago to ensure it doesn’t miss much a beat without him.
Thankfully, the White Sox boast an incredibly deep lineup with talent all over the field. Losing Jimenez should be a fatal blow, but for Chicago, it’s merely a matter of adjusting its lineup to win as many games as it can until Jimenez returns.
Chicago White Sox projected lineup without Eloy Jimenez
1B: Jose Abreu
2B: Nick Madrigal
SS: Tim Anderson
3B: Yoan Moncada
OF: Luis Robert
OF: Adam Eaton
OF: Andrew Vaughn
The big question for the White Sox would be who to slot in as the designated hitter in 2021. That role was supposed to belong to Vaughn, but with Jimenez out for most of the season, he could end up replacing him in the outfield.
Leury Garcia is also an option to fill the outfield hole left by Jimenez, which would allow Vaughn to DH like originally planned. Chicago is expected to tryout Vaughn in left field for the remainder of Spring Training to see whether or not placing him there in the everyday lineup is something that could serve as a long-term answer.