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It has been a long time since the Baltimore Orioles have been able to take on bad salaries in trades. The big market teams do so with regularity to get more favorable trade terms, but the Orioles have been operating with such tight payroll constraints previously that the strategy was not one they could entertain.
However, 2024 is a very different time for the Orioles as a franchise. Their new ownership actually has money in their wallet and seems to trust the front office to make smart use of their resources. What Baltimore fans hadn't seen yet was the front office actually doing anything with that newfound freedom.
That is ... until Tuesday, when it was revealed that the Orioles were acquiring Eloy Jimenez from the White Sox with just minutes on the clock before the trade deadline.
Salary dump: Jimenez was earning $13 million in the final year of a six-year, $43 million contract and the White Sox finally found a taker. https://t.co/D3cfUNQo5m
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) July 30, 2024
Orioles News: Baltimore takes puzzling gamble on Eloy Jimenez
It wasn't that long ago that Jimenez was one of baseball's best young players. His raw power has long been admired league-wide and many thought that he was going to be a cornerstone of Chicago's roster. However, a series of pretty brutal injuries in his career has sapped Jimenez of his effectiveness and kept him off the field for long stretches. After a pretty decent 2023 season where he posted a .758 OPS and played 120 games, 2024 has been less kind with a .240/.297/.345 line in 249 plate appearances.
This move is a bit of a puzzler. While Jimenez is immensely talented, his injury history is legitimately spooky and he is owed a decent amount of money in the last year of his contract (assuming Baltimore doesn't exercise his club options, of course). The Orioles also don't have a shortage of bats looking for playing time right now.
Based on the information we have right now, it seems like Baltimore is just taking a flyer on a guy on an expiring deal that has real upside. The rest of the terms of the deal matter here, but this a move that is interesting mainly for how weird it is considering the state of the Orioles' roster.