By: Brian Frank
Leo Jiménez was having a tremendous season with the Bisons before being promoted to the Blue Jays to make his major-league debut. The 23-year-old infielder was slashing .271/.416/.431 with seven home runs in 57 games for the Herd, when he was scratched from the Bisons' lineup prior to their game on June 30th against the Syracuse Mets in Buffalo.
“I was in the lineup, then all of a sudden I was taken out of the lineup,” Jiménez said in a recent interview with The Herd Chronicles. “(Bisons manager) Casey (Candaele) told me that stuff was happening up here (in Toronto), but he didn't quite tell me what was going on. He was like, ‘It just depends. If anything happens, you will be the one getting called up. That's why we took you out of lineup.’”
Taking infield at Rogers Centre. Photo Credit: Brian Frank, The Herd Chronicles
After the game, Jiménez returned to his apartment, still unsure what was going on. As it turned out, the Blue Jays needed someone to fill in for utility man Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who’d sprained his left knee in a game against the New York Yankees. At around 11:00 p.m. that night, Jiménez's phone rang. It was Candaele.
“He's like, ‘Hey, man, I'm sorry for taking you out of the lineup. Are you ready to play tomorrow?’” Jiménez recalled. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, of course.’ He said, ‘Good, because you're going to Toronto tomorrow.’”
An excited Jiménez made the journey up to Rogers Centre with his family, who just happened to be visiting from Panama when he was promoted.
“They were in Buffalo when I got called up,” he explained. “They were supposed to leave on Wednesday, and I got called up here on Monday. So, they actually enjoyed the whole ride. They came here from Buffalo with me and they’ve enjoyed every single moment that I had here.”
Jiménez made his major-league debut starting at shortstop against the Houston Astros at Rogers Centre. Framber Valdez, a tough left-handed hurler was on the mound. He had a 3.80 ERA in 14 starts heading into the game.
“A lot of emotions, you know, a little bit nervous,” Jiménez said of how he felt going into his debut. “I can't hide that. It’s something that's just normal, I guess. There were a lot of emotions going through my head. I was also actually very excited to make my debut against such a good team – a World Series champion throughout the years. So, a lot of emotions.”
The young infielder drew a walk in two plate appearances against Valdez, before being removed for a pinch-hitter.
Three days later, Jiménez played in his second major-league game – this time starting at second base at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park. Jiménez stepped to the plate for his first at-bat of the contest in the second inning, facing Mariners right-hander George Kirby, who entered the game with a 3.32 ERA in 18 starts.
“I can definitely tell you every single detail about it,” Jiménez laughed when asked about the at-bat. “I was facing George Kirby, one of the best pitchers in the game. I had a pretty good plan against him. I watched a lot of videos pregame and asked a lot of my teammates that had faced him before.”
“He threw me some really good pitches and he ended up throwing me a slider,” he continued. “I kind of flicked it towards the middle. As soon as I saw that, I was like 'please land.' When it actually landed, it kind of got the pressure off my shoulders. It was awesome.”
As he reached first base with his first major-league hit secured, he received a loud ovation from the large number of Blue Jays fans in attendance. Toronto fans are well known for making the trip to Seattle to cheer on Canada’s team.
“It kind of felt like home, like being at Rogers Centre here in Toronto,” Jiménez remembered. “I heard the guys talking about that Seattle kind of feels like playing at home. So yeah, it was definitely the same vibe. A lot of people were cheering for us, cheering for the team – especially that first hit for me. It was a lot of people getting up and cheering for that. It was awesome.”
As the crowd and his teammates cheered, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. retrieved the ball as a memento for his young teammate.
“I went home for the All-Star break and I took it with me and gave it to my parents,” Jiménez smiled. “So they have it there. It's already in Panama in my house.”
Jiménez collected another single later in the game and circled the bases on a George Springer home run to score his first major-league run. He also reached base a third time in the contest when he was hit by a pitch. Toronto ended up winning the game 5-4.
Another cool big-league moment for Jiménez came when the Blue Jays took on the Tampa Bay Rays at Rogers Centre at the end of July. Life-long friend and childhood neighbor José Caballero currently plays for the Rays.
“We basically live in the same neighborhood,” Jiménez said of Caballero. “We live, I'm going to say, like seven or eight houses away from each other. We basically grew up together there playing. He was older than me, so we never got a chance to play baseball growing up at the same level, but we used to play pickup baseball games in the neighborhood with a lot of kids. Our families have known each other our whole lives.”
Signing autographs in Toronto. Photo Credit: Brian Frank, The Herd Chronicles
Caballero was in the Rays lineup in the first two games of the three-game series playing third base, while Jiménez started all three games at shortstop for the Blue Jays. All the way from their neighborhood in Chitré, Panama, to stepping on a major-league field together in Toronto, Canada.
“We never got the chance to play (organized) baseball together growing up,” Jiménez said with a laugh, “but it’s even better up here.”
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