Stock Watch: Eloy Jimenez’s Precocious Power Draws Raves

For the best power prospect in baseball, look no further than Eloy Jimenez.

VERDICT

Jimenez’s power and hitting ability have only been slowed by injuries.

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The Cubs’ precocious 20-year-old corner outfielder was limited to 35 games due to injury through the end of June, but in that time hit seven doubles, six homers and slugged .500 for high Class A Myrtle Beach. That doesn’t count his signature moment, and maybe the signature moment of the minor leagues this year. At the Carolina League home run derby in June, Jimenez launched a home run off a light tower in left-center field, smashing a stadium light, a la Roy Hobbs in “The Natural.”

The 6-foot-4, 205-pound Dominican already draws comparisons from coaches and evaluators with Miguel Cabrera. Others prefer Giancarlo Stanton. The one hiccup in Jimenez’s development has been injuries. He missed the first five weeks of the season with a bone bruise in his right shoulder and missed time in May with a tweaked hamstring.

In the nearly two months since his hamstring injury, Jimenez had played the outfield on back-to-back days just three times, though never for three days in a row. He served as the DH in 14 of his first 35 games, more than a one-third of the time.

But Jimenez’s bat has produced prodigious totals when he has been healthy, with tales of his long drives reaching increasingly mythic proportions.

— Kyle Glaser