Eloy Jiménez’s workout before Thursday’s game at Guaranteed Rate Field included some running, and the Chicago White Sox outfielder/designated hitter said he feels “pretty normal” as he recovers from a low-grade left hamstring strain.
Jiménez suffered the injury while running from first to third in the seventh inning Monday and was placed on the 10-day injured list retroactive to Tuesday.
“I felt something and I tried to finish the game, but it was hurting a little bit,” Jiménez said. “But in the next two days, I’ve been feeling way better.”
The Sox said Wednesday that Jiménez will miss an estimated two to three weeks.
“I feel good,” Jiménez said. “I don’t want anything like this to happen, but this is baseball and it is what it is.”
Sox manager Pedro Grifol is taking the glass-half-full view of the situation.
“I look at it, the work that he put in in the offseason put him in a position where he came in today, two days after (it happened), and he’s running and he’s strong and he’s hitting,” Grifol said before Thursday’s game against the San Francisco Giants. “Things like that are going to happen. It’s part of the game. It could be the weather.
“The glass-half-full side of me tells me, ‘You know what? Good job in the offseason. Great job in the offseason. You put yourself in a position where you’re strong to recover from these types of injuries.’ We are all extremely optimistic that this is not going to take long.”
Jiménez agreed the offseason work was helpful, saying he was available “If I needed to pinch hit or play today.”
Grifol said, “It’s so early in the year that you’d always rather err on the side of caution than turn this thing into a longer period of time when it could be just a 10-day thing.
“He’s so valuable to us and he means so much to our lineup. We want to make sure that he’s healthy when we get him back on the field. Completely healthy.”
Jiménez’s mindset as he rebounds from the setback? “Just moving forward and try to do my best.”
