Eloy Jiménez arrived in Baltimore eager to learn. He walked into his first team meeting and, as offensive strategy coach Cody Asche remembers it, introduced himself with something to the effect of, “Hey, what do you guys got for me? I want to be good.”
It wasn’t that long ago that Jiménez hit 31 home runs in a season (2019) and won an American League Silver Slugger Award (2020). The Orioles acquired the 27-year-old designated hitter at the trade deadline after he battled injuries and slashed .240/.297/.345 with five home runs over 65 games for the last-place Chicago White Sox.
The Orioles, hunting a pennant and eyeing playoff vengeance, offer Jiménez a fresh start and veteran guidance that he’s been eager to capitalize on.
“As soon as I got here I knew I needed to make some changes,” said Jiménez, who was Baseball America’s No. 3 prospect in 2019. “So I was open to learning.”
The Spanish-speaking slugger who has been hampered by injuries naturally gravitated toward a player on the heels of a similar experience. Venezuela native Anthony Santander, 29, had endured many of the same offensive setbacks — a prerequisite to this season’s career-high 38 home runs.
Santander and Jiménez first met in 2016 as opponents in the minor leagues. But over the past month, Santander has become a mentor of sorts, taking the Dominican Republic native under his wing.
“I know what he can do to help us win because he’s a right-hander with big pop,” Santander said. “He got a lot of pop. So knowing that, you just want to make sure he understands he’s coming into a winning team and then what it takes to go out there and compete.
“What I like the most, he’s right there like, ‘What time are we gonna work out tomorrow?’”
When they go to the gym together, Santander is attentive to his teammate’s technique — particularly on stretching or range of motion work. Jiménez follows his lead. “He basically does everything I do,” Santander said. He cracked into laughter, “Just literally like being his daddy, like, ‘You gotta do this.’”
“I understand his situation coming from a losing team with a lot of injuries and all that,” Santander continued. “So I just want to [emphasize] the most important thing is to work on his body to try to stay healthy. Helping him with that and in the cage because I really believe he can continue to help us the rest of the season.”
Jiménez has benefited in a small sample size under a new direction, specifically crediting the time shared with his new baseball confidant.
He entered Tuesday with 17 hits, four doubles and six RBIs with 12 strikeouts in 18 games over a month in Baltimore. His batting average is up to .304 in August, and he’s slugging .375. During Sunday night’s loss to the Houston Astros, he broke up Yusei Kikuchi’s no-hit bid, singling on a sharp liner to right that set up Ramón Urías’ game-tying, three-run homer in the fifth inning.
“He’s really, really pulling for his teammates to succeed. Guys are feeding off that,” Asche said. “It’s a time of the year where someone’s got to bring the energy every day. We’re in the thick of it. So to add another guy to the clubhouse — that’s just what he’s done.”
Behind the scenes with Santander in the gym is only one side of the mentor-mentee coin. The other is conversations in the batting cage, focusing on Jiménez rediscovering the lift in his swing that helped him find early success in his major league career. Who better to take advice from than the Orioles’ home run leader?
Jiménez’s average launch angle tailed off year-over-year since 2021, from 8.4 degrees to now 2.7, according to Statcast. His 31 home runs were a product of a career-best 9.3. Between 8 and 32 is defined as the “sweet spot” to put the ball in play or over the fence. For reference, Santander’s 2024 launch angle is 23.6 — among the best in baseball — and his career average is 20.2.
Swing adjustments midseason are a tall task, particularly when it addresses an approach Jiménez has stuck with for much of his six-year MLB career.
“It’s been a challenge but I try to put the ball in the air and I try to stay back more than usual. I think it’s gonna work,” Jiménez said. “I like challenges.”
Santander and Asche agree Jiménez’s willingness to learn on the fly and his eagerness in meetings or in the batting cage have been his most impressive traits. That’s why he’s found more success in his short time in Baltimore than he did all season in Chicago.
“I think that’s a rare attribute for players that are past the first couple years of their career, to really be so open and receptive to coaching,” Asche said. “Especially, you know, when you come from a place where you might be jaded by coaching just from the circumstances that you’re in, it’s really easy to do, so credit to him. He’s had an awesome attitude.”