Chicago White Sox designated hitter Eloy Jiménez underwent an appendectomy on Saturday night at Cincinnati's Good Samaritan Hospital after suffering from abdominal pain overnight. He's scheduled to be discharged later tonight and will return to Chicago to begin his recovery from the operation -- that process is expected to take between four and six weeks, according to a team-issued press release. That would put Jiménez in line to return sometime around early to mid June.
Update on Eloy Jiménez: pic.twitter.com/TPHkJ98GJN
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) May 7, 2023
Jiménez, 26, had appeared in 25 games prior to this weekend. In those contests, he hit .258/.321/.423 (103 OPS+) with four home runs and 15 runs batted in across 106 plate appearances. Those marks are well beneath his norms. Coming into this season, he batted .276/.327/.504 (123 OPS+) for his career, with seasonal averages of 18 home runs and 53 runs batted in.
Jiménez has dealt with his fair share of injuries throughout his big-league career. Indeed, this will be his second stint on the IL this season. He missed more than a week of action in April with a hamstring injury. Dating back to the 2021 season, he's appeared in a total of 164 games -- or, just two more than the typical regular season. He hasn't appeared in 100 or more games in a season outside of 2019, when he was a rookie who played in 122 contests.
With Jiménez unavailable for the near future, the White Sox will presumably turn to a combination at DH that includes Gavin Sheets, Yasmani Grandal and Andrew Vaughn.
The White Sox entered Saturday with a disappointing 11-22 record on the regular season, putting them eight games back in the American League Central. Jiménez joins a few other notable White Sox players on the shelf, including Jake Burger, Yoán Moncada, Garrett Crochet and Liam Hendriks.
