MIAMI — The Marlins designated infielder Leo Jiménez for assignment and recalled first baseman De Los Santos from Triple-A Jacksonville, a roster move that swaps a struggling utility player for a 23-year-old slugger with 21 home runs in the minors this season.
Jiménez, whom Miami acquired from Toronto on March 29 for prospect Dub Gleed and future considerations, hit .199/.306/.259 with four doubles, two homers and 14 RBIs in 194 plate appearances. The club deployed him across the diamond — 40 games at third base, 11 at first base, nine as designated hitter, seven at second base and one at shortstop — but the bat never caught up.
“It just came down to the actual performance just never really got going,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “A lot of the things that we liked about Leo, we still like, and he just wasn’t able to really get it going and kind of meet some of the expectations or some of the projections we had on Leo to this point.”
The 25-year-old Jiménez was also supposed to give the left-handed-heavy Marlins a right-handed option against southpaws, but his splits worked against him — a .547 OPS against lefties compared with .581 against right-handers. With recently promoted Graham Pauley and Jared Serna on the active roster and second baseman Xavier Edwards expected back, Jiménez’s playing time was set to shrink further.
De Los Santos, now in his fourth stint with Miami this season, arrives with a .277/.342/.496 slash line, 18 doubles, one triple, 21 homers and 70 RBIs in 102 games at Jacksonville. In limited Major League action, he has gone 3-for-9 with one double and three strikeouts. His right-handed bat gives the Marlins a first-base and DH complement to left-handed hitters Kyle Stowers and Griffin Conine.
“He’s made some strides,” McCullough said. “A lot of times, [we] probably forget how young a player he was. Been in Triple-A now for a number of years, but he’s shown some real improvement, especially offensively. Felt like this was time now [with] a few weeks left [of the] regular season and beyond that he’s earned a chance to come back up here.”
De Los Santos is expected to be in the lineup as the Marlins continue their homestand at loanDepot park with a few weeks remaining in the regular season.