White Sox have new defensive plan for Eloy Jiménez after capture

Eloy Jiménez stole a home run, threw a peace sign and smiled from ear to ear.

But not everyone was smiling after the Chicago White Sox outfielder’s highlights game.

“‘Holding my breath’ would be the best way to describe what I was feeling,” said manager Tony La Russa after his team beat the Los Angeles Angels by a score of 9-3 on Tuesday night.

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He surely wasn’t the only onlooker to feel this, with White Sox fans the world over surely feeling their hearts go down their throats as Jiménez followed his superb snag with a brief stay lying on the warning lane. Jiménez almost seemed to put the crowd to work, which still had in its collective memory its attempt to steal a home run in the spring that had resulted in a torn pectoral tendon and an absence of several months. After the spell on earth came the peace sign, then he jumped to his feet smiling.

It almost seemed an act, in a way. A schtick of the guy who enjoys interacting with the Guaranteed Rate Field fans so much that in the ninth inning he was orchestrating a cheering, pointing different sections of his position in left field and generating some loud screams.

But La Russa also remembers what happened in Arizona several months ago and can’t afford to lose one of their biggest players to the White Sox about to embark on what they hope to be a long playoff streak. So he has a new plan for Jiménez, one that will likely mean more wall robberies – but also more scary moments and injury issues.

“I told him from now on he’s going to put his back to the wall. When he backs up he’s just going to bang his head on it. And he’s going to play it all in front of him,” La Russa said. “He thinks I’m kidding. I said, ‘Am I kidding?’ Because it was so scary.

“There was another time in the game, I said, ‘I want you to play where you have your feet on the edge of the grass where you feel the warning trail. “And I looked up there when (Angels second baseman David) Fletcher was up, and he (was playing too far). I said (to outfield coach Daryl Boston), ‘Recover -the guy ! Fletcher can hit the ball. “

“So we’re going to play it deeper. And if some blooper falls, they fall. But it’s not going to fall.”

It seems like the right plan for Jiménez, given both his importance to the team and his history of misadventures on the pitch, several of which have resulted in displacements on the injured list. Over the past seasons, those missed games on the left have raised questions about his development as a defender. As the White Sox look to win the World Series over the next month and a half, La Russa can’t afford to be wrong.

Jiménez probably won’t like to hear it, of course, as he has long been committed to improving his left field defense and becoming a versatile player, someone who doesn’t want to be replaced by a defensive substitute in end of the round. . But La Russa did not hesitate to trade in a more reliable outfielder, if the situation allows it depending on the score and the position of the White Sox in their roster.

Tuesday’s play was indeed a very good catch, and Lucas Giolito reacted on the mound as any pitcher would have for any outfielder making a big play. After the match, Jiménez’s teammates had praised his work ethic of trying to improve himself, using this hold as proof that he has it. And Jiménez throwing in some of his playful personality made the moment even more memorable, more enjoyable for those watching.

But La Russa saw what a lot of White Sox fans have probably seen too, something they don’t want to see again: Jiménez on the track.

The South Side skipper will therefore ensure that this does not happen again.

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