Former Cubs prospect called the biggest disappointments in Chicago Sports history

After the first wave of the Chicago Cubs' rebuild under Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer included the successful arrivals of top prospects Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, and Kyle Schwarber; the belief was that outfield prospect Eloy Jimenez was going to be the next superstar prospect to arrive at Wrigley Field and join the World Series winning core of 2016.

Jimenez signed with the Cubs as an international free agency in 2013 when he was 17 years old and by the time he reached 21, he was climbing the ranks of the Cubs' prospect rankings. Jimenez was the Cubs' top prospect in 2017 when he was traded to the Chicago White Sox at the Major League Baseball trade deadline.

Jimenez made his debut for the White Sox in 2019, when it became clear that the starting pitcher the Cubs acquired from the Sox in 2017, Jose Quintana, was not the ace that the team believed they were acquiring at the time of the deal.

Jimenez hit 31 home runs while compiling an OPS+ of 116 in his rookie season before improving upon that mark with a 139 OPS+ during the COVID-shortened 2020 season. The issue is that since the 2020 season, Jimenez has struggled to stay healthy.

Jimenez has failed to play in over 100 games twice over the course of the past three seasons. Jimenez has developed a reputation for being injury-prone with a reminder of that fact happening this week when the designated hitter was forced to leave Sunday's game for the White Sox early.

The expectation moving forward for Jimenez's career will never reach its true potential because of the frequent injuries. This has led to NBC Sports Chicago's Ryan McGuffey making a bold claim about Jimenez's time in Chicago.

The Chicago Cubs evaluation of Eloy Jimenez has proven to be correct.

One of the reasons why the Cubs felt comfortable in parting with Jimenez in 2017 was the fear that he would not be able to stay healthy. While the Cubs' assessment was based on the idea of him playing in the outfield during a 162-game season, the White Sox have found out that even as a designated hitter, Jimenez has struggled to stay healthy.

While the trade remains a questionable move for the Cubs considering they also gave up Dylan Cease, the team is not losing sleep over what could have been with Jimenez.

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