CHICAGO _ Eloy Jimenez's hip injury is minor, the White Sox said Thursday, and holding him out of the lineup was purely precautionary.
But injuries have been holding back Jimenez in an otherwise impressive rookie season. He has played in 91 of the Sox's 127 games.
Among American League rookies, Jimenez ranks first in home runs (22), second in total bases (160) and fourth in RBIs (52) despite two stints on the injured list. He's only 24th among major league rookies in WAR (0.3), according to fangraphs.com, mostly because of defensive issues.
Still, if he had remained healthy, Jimenez could be vying for the AL Rookie of the Year award thanks to his power numbers.
"Earlier in the year when he had the (ankle) injury, he was trying to climb a wall," manager Rick Renteria said, referring to Jimenez's first IL stint, which occurred when he sprained his right ankle trying to catch a home-run ball against the Tigers in April. "But other than that, muscle fatigue and muscle strains are common, not as uncommon as some people may think.
"There are ways you can still play through and manage them. To be honest, he's such a big part of our organization moving forward, just allowing him to take the break to be treated up (is the right move). I guarantee you if this was a World Series or a playoffs, he'd be playing, and he's capable of doing that. There's no need for that. We have men that will be able to pick him up."
General manger Rick Hahn was hoping to see Jimenez, Yoan Moncada and Tim Anderson in the same lineup Thursday night.
"We've only had that for literally a half-inning since the All-Star break," Hahn said.
But the hip injury forced Jimenez to be scratched.
"The three of them back together is going to have to wait at least one more day," Hahn said.
Renteria said Jimenez hurt his hip during Wednesday's game in Minnesota but didn't say anything, and he mentioned it only after feeling it while running before Thursday's game against the Rangers.
Keeping Jimenez in the lineup must be a priority if the Sox are to reach their potential and take the rebuild to another level in 2020.
A question posed to Jimenez in January at SoxFest was whether he could stay healthy for an entire season. Last year he battled a pectoral injury in spring training and suffered a strained left adductor (thigh) in July with Triple-A Charlotte.
"I've been working in the gym to get stronger," he said then. "That's one of my goals this year _ getting healthy and playing the full season."
So any reason for all of the injuries?
"It just happened," he said. "I've been working hard and I can't control that."
One reason the Cubs were willing to part with one of their top hitting prospects was the possibility Jimenez would suffer nagging injuries, as happened to Jorge Soler early in his career.
"Are there certain guys that are injury-prone? I might have been considered one of those guys in my career," Renteria said. "It happens. You do everything you can to maintain yourself. Keep yourself fit, do everything to can do to stay between the lines, but sometimes things happen. Sometimes it's odd, sometimes it's unique. Others, they occur when they occur."
Jimenez has another five weeks to add to his numbers, and his season already should be deemed a success.
But to become the player he expects to be, Jimenez has to stay in the lineup and off the bench.
