White Sox designated hitter Eloy Jiménez rounds the bases after hitting a two-run homer during the third inning against the Twins on Thursday at Guaranteed Rate Field. (Armando L. Sanchez, Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tri)
Eloy Jiménez underwent an appendectomy Saturday evening at Cincinnati’s Good Samaritan Hospital, the Chicago White Sox announced.
The team expected the outfielder/designated hitter to be discharged later Saturday. He’ll return to Chicago and begin his recovery, which the team said is expected to take four to six weeks.
“Those things are scary,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said after Saturday’s 5-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.
Jiménez experienced abdominal pain Friday night, went to the hospital Saturday morning to be evaluated and was identified with acute appendicitis.
“Losing his presence, it’s tough,” outfielder/first baseman Gavin Sheets said. “How talented he is and the way he’s swinging the bat. But more than that, outside of baseball it’s a scary situation. Glad we got it handled.
“It sucks for all of us. He was excited to get back to form, and we really need him.”
Jiménez is slashing .258/.321/.423 with four homers and 15 RBIs in 25 games. He had heated up, hitting safely in his last eight games, going 14-for-33 (.424) with two home runs, eight RBIs, six runs and a 1.109 OPS during the streak.
“He was swinging the bat really well,” Grifol said. “And (Luis) Robert (Jr.) is now swinging the bat really well. Being able to have those two guys swinging the bat at the same time and a couple of other guys, (Yoán) Moncada doing his rehab and all that stuff is promising.
“Life deals you stuff you’ve got to deal with. We’ve got to move on. Thank God everything came out all right. Should be discharged (Saturday night) and just get him back to us. Start his rehab and take care of that. Those things are scary and health is more important. He’ll rehab this thing like anything else and get back to us.”
Without Jiménez, Grifol said the team has to continue to “keep grinding.”
“We’ve got to string together good at-bats,” he said. “That’s just the way it is. We lose Eloy, a middle-of-the-lineup guy, swinging the bat really well. Carried us there for a little bit. Now we have some other guys swinging the bat really good. TA (Tim Anderson) is back.
“And the encouraging thing is Robert is seeing the ball well. He’s putting good ABs together. He was on base four times (Saturday). We’ve just got to keep grinding. That’s all you can do. Just get back after it tomorrow and just keep going and win a series.”
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Originally published at Tribune News Service