Abreu making sure Jimenez is not forgotten at Sox opener
Eloy Jimenez is down, and Jose Abreu is stepping up.
To honor his teammate, who is expected to miss 5-6 months recovering from a ruptured left pectoral tendon, Abreu is playing with one of Jimenez's signature red batting gloves in his back pocket.
No. 74 on the White Sox, Jimenez's uniform was hanging in the dugout for Thursday night's season opener against the Angels. According to the Sun-Times, Abreu had all uniformed personnel sign it.
"I'm probably going to be doing some other stuff you're going to see throughout the season," Abreu said through a translator. "It's just a way for me to carry him, to feel his presence, even though he won't be physically with us. I know that we're going to keep his energy among us and he's going to enjoy the season too, even though like I said before, he won't be physically with us.
"But he's going to have fun and we're going to honor him, just in the way that we are going to play and we're going to have fun during the games."