Pedro Grifol would not classify Eloy Jiménez’s status as day-to-day.
But the Chicago White Sox manager said it’s possible the outfielder/designated hitter could return to action in four to five days as he recovers from his left foot discomfort.
“You still have to see how it progresses,” Grifol said Friday afternoon. “But overall, a pretty good exam. You always want to avoid DL, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. In this particular case, the evaluation was good, it was positive. He’s not day-to-day, we’re probably looking at 4-5 days.”
The Sox were without Jiménez for Friday’s series opener against the Miami Marlins at Guaranteed Rate Field.
He exited the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in the ninth after running slowly to first while trying to beat a double play. The throw to first was wild and Jiménez reached second, and he was checked by the training staff before leaving the game.
Grifol said the injury was “like right below the calf.”
“I think he felt it in the first game,” Grifol said. “That’s what he told me, he felt it a little bit in the first game and didn’t think too much about it and then he obviously felt it in that doubleheader.”
Jiménez played a big role in the first game of the doubleheader, hitting a two-run homer in the seventh inning. It was the final of four homers hit by the Sox as he joined Jake Burger, Luis Robert Jr. and Yoán Moncada in the 6-5 victory.
It was the first time Jiménez, Robert and Moncada had homered in the same game.
“It’s crazy because I thought we had this kind of match before,” Jiménez said Thursday in New York after being told the score between games of the doubleheader.
Grifol said of the trio on Friday: “They’re capable of doing that a lot in this game, especially when they’re lined up together and they’re healthy together, so it doesn’t surprise me that they did and it wouldn’t surprise me if they did again.”
While Moncada aims to return to his hot start — he’s 7-for-52 (.135) with a homer and four RBIs in his last 16 games — Robert has had three multi-hit games in his last four games entering Friday , hitting .467. during stretching.
Robert is 11-for-31 (.355) with a homer, an RBI and four multi-hit performances in his last eight games.
“He continues to work on the things he needs to improve on,” Grifol said of Robert after Thursday’s Game 1, when he had three hits. “With him, it’s all about swinging at strikes. He continues to work on it and (Thursday) had a really good first game, swinging at strikes.
“If he can get yards in the offensive zone, he’s going to be very, very dangerous. We think he’s dangerous now if he can consistently get yards in the strike zone, really special stuff.”
Robert, whose 14 homers already surpassed his total of 12 last season, and Moncada will be among those without Jiménez.
Jiménez is slashing .257/.315/.434 with six homers and 24 RBIs in 35 games during a season that was cut short by an appendectomy in early May. In his 10 games since returning, he has two homers and nine RBI.
“He had it in his mind that he was going to come back sooner rather than later and he did a really good job mentally,” Grifol said Friday. “He came back and picked up right where he left off. Big home run yesterday. He did a good job.”
As Jiménez recovers, the Sox can use both Burger and Gavin Sheets.
“When you have the depth that we have, the key is to keep guys on pace,” Grifol said. “Sometimes it’s hard. I avoided the handling part – right-handed you play, left-handed you play – we went a little deeper than that. That’s how we’ve been able to keep them on pace and when you have an injury it allows others to step up and take the bulk of those ABs.
“They’re thankful we have some depth to be able to do that. We sure miss Eloy’s bat, but replacing it with Sheets or Burger, that’s pretty good. I’d rather have them all, but in the next four, five days we won’t.”
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