Eloy Jiménez took a couple of steps out of the batter’s box after hitting a grounder to third base in the sixth inning Sunday against the Detroit Tigers.
The Chicago White Sox designated hitter started to display discomfort while running to first as Gio Urshela threw him out.
Jiménez exited with left adductor soreness. He was not in the starting lineup for Monday’s game against the Atlanta Braves at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Monday morning, manager Pedro Grifol said the Sox remained in a “holding pattern” in regard to Jiménez’s status.
“He went to see the doctors,” Grifol said before Monday’s game. “We haven’t gotten any results back yet. We’ll wait to make that decision when we get all the information.”
Grifol said Jiménez “felt a little better” Monday morning.
“I think he had this last year a little bit, so kind of similar,” Grifol said. “There’s a lot that goes into this stuff, peace of mind with the results. We’ll see how it goes. I don’t want to get too ahead of myself with this stuff until we get all the X-rays and all that stuff back.”
Gavin Sheets started at DH on Monday.
“Obviously if Eloy is not here, we’re going to add a guy, so it will be Gavin and whoever we add,” Grifol said. “We’ll mix and match. Next-man-up type of mentality. We’ve got to continue to play the game hard, play it the right way and put ourselves in a position to win baseball games.
“We have some options but there’s a possibility that we might end up going on a platoon situation if Eloy is not available. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Right now we’re waiting on Eloy’s results.”
Jiménez is a crucial part of the lineup as the cleanup batter. He is 2-for-11 with two singles this season.
He discussed during spring training the importance of remaining healthy. He played 120 games last season, his most since appearing in 122 as a rookie in 2019.
“Obviously there’s things you can do to put yourself in a position for that not to happen. He’s doing those, we feel,” Grifol said. “We talked about it this morning about routines in between at-bats. Believe me, we’re exhausting everything we can to make sure we prevent these.
“He’s not sitting around. We’ve got the cage down there. You see him, he’s moving around. He’s swinging. He’s doing all kinds of stuff. He’s stretching. We’ve got to find something that works.”
