Boston Red Sox futurologists might want to pay attention to Gilberto Jimenez.
MLB.com’s Jim Callis, Jonathan Mayo and Mike Rosenbaum included the Red Sox prospect on a list of the top-30 Major League Baseball hopefuls “set to break out in 2020.” Jimenez spent 2018 with Boston’s Dominican Summer League team and played for the Single-A Lowell Spinners in 2019. MLB.com expects the 19-year-old to make a name for himself this season and stoke Sox fans’ hopes for the future.
“A $10,000 steal from the Dominican Republic in 2017, Jimenez skipped a level last season and led the short-season New York-Penn League in batting (.359) in his U.S. debut,” MLB.com wrote Friday. “The best center-field defender and one of the fastest runners in Boston’s system, he’ll make the jump to full-season ball in 2020.”
Jimenez hit .359 with three home runs and 19 RBIs and 14 stolen bases in 59 games last season.
Although he’s not one of Boston’s eight non-roster spring training invitees in 2020, Jimenez might prove himself worthy of a golden ticket in spring 2021 … or perhaps even a spot on the big-league club’s expanded roster.
