Orioles officially part ways with lackluster trade deadline acquisition

On Saturday afternoon, the Orioles announced that they'd officially declined to pick up the one-year, $16.5 million contract option to retain DH Eloy Jimenez. It had long been speculated that the O's would refuse to bring Jimenez back on that salary and on Saturday, those suspicions were confirmed.

2024 was far and away the worst season of Jimenez's career. The big righty hit just .240/.297/.345 in the first half with the White Sox. After coming to Baltimore at the trade deadline, Jimenez's line dropped to .232/.270/.336 with just 1 homer and 7 RBI in 33 games with the Orioles.

Jimenez just finished his 6th season as a major leaguer and he's still yet to surpass more than 122 games played. He hit that high water mark in 2019, his first year in the big leagues. Since then, he's topped 100 games on just one other occasion, in 2023.

While he was once a highly touted prospect with monster raw power, Jimenez has failed to stay healthy enough to make an impact at the highest level. He's still just 27 years old and will certainly get another crack at a big league job, but at 6'4" and 250+ pounds, it's unlikely that his body will hold up over the long term.

Orioles officially opt out of the Eloy Jimenez contract

As for the Orioles, they'll have another four decisions to make in regard to player contract options. Jimenez's was seen as arguably the easiest of the five choices, with hardly any O's fans expecting Mike Elias to spend that kind of money on a player of Jimenez's caliber.

The other four players in question are Danny Coulombe, Cionel Perez, Ryan O'Hearn, and Seranthony Dominguez. Team beat writers, including MASN's Roch Kubatko, seem to think that Dominguez will return. The other three are all consensus picks to return to Baltimore.

Dominguez's case is interesting. He's due $8 million next year and with Felix Bautista expected to be ready for Opening Day, Dominguez would slide back into the 7-8th inning role that he pitched in during his time in Philadelphia.

While the O's bullpen wasn't great during the second half of 2024, Dominguez was solid, if not spectacular, after taking over for Craig Kimbrel as the team's closer. There are reasons why it makes sense to retain Dominguez, but there are also valid arguments against it. The Orioles have until Monday afternoon to decide.