Chicago White Sox

First baseman Jose Abreu has agreed to a three-year, $50 million extension to remain with the Chicago White Sox through the 2022 season.

The club announced Friday that the 32-year-old will receive a $5 million signing bonus and will see an increase in salary as the contract progresses:

OFFICIAL: The #WhiteSox and José Abreu have agreed to terms on a three-year, $50-million contract. pic.twitter.com/imKamyV8rD

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) November 22, 2019

Abreu will have a full no-trade clause in 2020 and a limited one in 2021, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic:

Additional details on Abreu/#WhiteSox: Full no-trade until 11/1/2020 Ten-team no-trade from 11/1/2020 to 10/31/2021, five-team no-trade thereafter. Also: $4M of $18M salary in 2022 will be deferred and paid in four installments of $1M on July 1 each year from 2023 to ‘26.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 22, 2019

Abreu was scheduled to be a free agent this winter, but Chicago's decision to extend a qualifying offer could have affected his market, as any team that signed him would have had to surrender a draft pick. Rather than deal with an uncertain market, he accepted the one-year, $17.8 million deal.

Under terms of the new contract, Abreu will have an $11 million base salary in 2020.

Since signing a six-year, $68 million deal in October 2013, Abreu has been a force in the White Sox lineup. He has hit 22-plus home runs in all six of his big league seasons, and he has driven in 100-plus runs five times.

He is coming off a season in which he slashed .284/.330/.503 with an .834 OPS, piling up 33 home runs and an American League-best 123 RBI. He also earned his third career All-Star selection.

Abreu was the 2014 AL Rookie of the Year and has a pair of Silver Slugger Awards on his resume. Not only that, but he has also received AL MVP votes four times, receiving both a seventh- and 10th-place vote this year.

As productive as Abreu has been with the bat, the White Sox have not made the postseason since 2008. They made a 10-win jump this past season as they went 72-89. Their third-place result in the AL Central is their best finish since 2012.

Abreu's extension marks the second lucrative contract the White Sox have handed out in as many days. Chicago signed two-time All-Star catcher Yasmani Grandal to a four-year, $73 million deal Thursday, the biggest free-agent contract in franchise history.

The Chicago White Sox are reportedly set to shift their focus to free-agent starting pitcher Zack Wheeler after they announced the signing of catcher Yasmani Grandal on Thursday.

Andy Martino of SNY reported the White Sox are expected to have an "active offseason" but could face a challenge from the New York Yankees for Wheeler.

Other teams with interest include the Los Angeles Angels, Minnesota Twins and San Diego Padres, per Jon Paul Morosi of the MLB Network.

The 29-year-old Georgia native is coming off a solid 2019 campaign, though he couldn't quite match the career-best ERA (3.31) and WHIP (1.12) he posted in 2018. He finished the year with a 3.96 ERA, 1.26 WHIP and 195 strikeouts in 195.1 innings across 31 starts.

He wouldn't rule out a return to the Mets, who acquired him in a 2011 trade with the San Francisco Giants while he was still a minor league prospect, but told Mollie Walker of the New York Post in September he wanted to survey his options on the open market.

"I think you have to weigh your options when it gets to this point," Wheeler said. "I love it here and I definitely would listen to these guys. But I think you have to weigh all your options and see what's best for me personally at that point."

It's a two-way street as New York, which already features Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Marcus Stroman and Steven Matz in a strong rotation, will likely want to upgrade other areas before even considering whether to look toward a Wheeler reunion.

Meanwhile, the White Sox are trying to fill holes after recording a 72-89 record in 2019, which was 23.5 games shy of a playoff berth in the American League.

Grandal is a major upgrade for the middle of Chicago's order, but the rotation still needs to improve to make the team a legitimate threat. The club ranked 24th in starter ERA (5.30) this past season with Lucas Giolito serving as the team's only reliable starter for a majority of the year.

Wheeler would give the South Siders a solid No. 2 option behind Giolito to take pressure off the likes of Reynaldo Lopez and Dylan Cease heading into 2020.

The Chicago White Sox and free-agent catcher Yasmani Grandal reached an agreement Thursday on a four-year, $73 million contract.  

Chicago confirmed the deal after ESPN's Jeff Passan reported the details of the pact, which sets a new franchise record for total money.

Passan later spoke to White Sox vice president Ken Williams, who spoke on how Grandal's signing ties into the team's long-term plans:

Ken Williams on what signing Yasmani Grandal means for 2020 -- and beyond: “It’s clearly we’re trying to put ourselves in a window that could very well start next year but extend to the next five to seven years.”

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 21, 2019

Grandal hit the open market at an ideal time after putting together a career-best season with the Milwaukee Brewers. He posted career-high totals in home runs (28), runs batted in (77), runs scored (79), walks (109) and even stolen bases (five) in 2019.

The 31-year-old Cuba native also finished with his best OPS (.848) since his rookie season with the San Diego Padres in 2012, when he played just 60 games.

In September, the two-time All-Star said he felt his impact was positive throughout the campaign, even though 19 of his 28 homers came before the Midsummer Classic.

"I feel like I've been pretty locked in at least 75 percent of the season," Grandal told reporters. "Obviously, I haven't slugged as much as I would have liked to, especially since the beginning of the second half. When we're talking about feeling locked in, it's also being on base. For me, I value being on base a lot. As long as I'm on base and give my team a chance to win the game, that's it. That's all I care about."

In all, the University of Miami product has posted a .241/.348/.446 triple-slash line with 141 home runs in 879 appearances across eight seasons with the Padres, Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Grandal has also been one of the best defenders at the position (64 career DRS, per FanGraphs) and tied for second in runs saved via pitch framing in 2019 (13, per Baseball Savant).

There are always risks associated with signing a player who's coming off his best season, especially a primary catcher in his 30s. But even if his numbers at the plate dip a little for the White Sox, he'll still be a productive player at a weak offensive position with positive contributions defensively.

Grandal will likely slot in behind Tim Anderson, Jose Abreu and Yoan Moncada in the Chicago lineup.

Chicago White Sox slugger Jose Abreu agreed to a one-year, $17.9 million qualifying offer Thursday, keeping him with the club through the 2020 season. 

Jim Bowden of MLB Network reported the news, with colleague Jon Heyman noting the two sides will continue to negotiate a long-term deal. 

Abreu, 32, has spent his first six MLB seasons in Chicago after migrating to the United States from Cuba. He's coming off arguably the best season of his career, posting a .284/.330/.504 slash line with 33 home runs and an AL-high 123 runs batted in.

Once again one of the worst teams in the American League, the White Sox could have traded Abreu for a haul at the deadline. However, both sides remained committed to one another, with the plan of the White Sox competing in 2020.

White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf repeatedly told Abreu he would remain with the franchise as long as he wants.

"Jerry, several times, has told me and my family that I am not going to wear a jersey other than a White Sox jersey," Abreu told the Sun-Times' Daryl Van Schouwen. "I believe him. I believe in his word. And like I said, I’m very happy with and loyal to this organization. Hopefully, everything is going to pan out."

Abreu accepting the qualifying offer is a little surprising but represents his overarching desire to stay in Chicago. It's possible the White Sox would have chosen to not match a long-term contract offer if he found one that approached nine figures. Given the White Sox's decision to extend the qualifying offer, though, it's equally possible Abreu would have been in store for a long winter as teams hesitate about giving up draft picks.

We saw numerous high-profile free agents linger on the market longer than anyone expected last winter, with pitchers Craig Kimbrel and Dallas Keuchel lasting well into the regular season. Accepting the $17.9 million guarantees Abreu money now while giving both parties a chance to see if the White Sox make an expected improvement in 2020. 

The Chicago White Sox are considering holding onto first baseman Jose Abreu. 

ESPN's Jeff Passan reported Friday that the club and three-time All-Star "have discussed a long-term deal." 

"Abreu, 32, is facing a tough market for aging first basemen—and has a qualifying offer attached to him," Passan added. "Teams already are loath to go in big at that age and position. The [qualifying offer] could make it even tougher."

Abreu appeared in 159 games for the White Sox in 2019. The 2014 American League Rookie of the Year led the AL with 123 RBI and also posted 33 home runs on a .284/.330/.503 slash line.

On Nov. 4, USA Today's Bob Nightengale relayed that Abreu had received a $17.8 million qualifying offer from Chicago. He has 10 days from that date to whether he will accept it or decline to become an unrestricted free agent. 

Sox general manager Rick Hahn told reporters following the season in September that "there's that mutual desire" to keep Abreu in Chicago somehow (h/t NBC Sports Chicago's Vinnie Duber):

"With Jose, we've heard his thoughts that even if we don't re-sign him he's going to re-sign himself. We've heard Jerry's thoughts about he's always going to wear a White Sox uniform. I don't think they are going to be teaching this in negotiation classes in college any time soon how this one is unfolding. But my takeaway from all that is that there's a strong desire on both sides to figure out a way to keep Jose in a White Sox uniform beyond this year.

"We've been in these situations before. It seems fairly similar to the Paul Konerko situation after ‘05 and again after '09, when we re-signed him again. Paulie went deep into free agency and talked to other clubs, and we still found a way to bring him back. I don't know quite the path it's going to follow with Jose just yet, but more often than not, when there's that mutual desire to figure out a way to get something done, you wind up getting something done."

Abreu had said back in July that he didn't "want to leave here" because he felt the White Sox are building "something very big."

Chicago's 72-89 record in 2019 compared to its 62-100 2018 campaign would indicate that the White Sox are moving in the right direction. 

Keeping Abreu in the fold for 2020 makes all the sense in the world given the only other first baseman currently on the club's roster is 24-year-old Zack Collins, who just concluded his rookie year. However, the organization drafted first baseman Andrew Vaughn with the third overall pick in June's draft—MLB.com's top first-base prospect. 

Vaughn's development is something to consider in relation to the White Sox's long-term commitment to Abreu.

The man with the generic name and soft-spoken voice is anything but coy. You can see it in the way Tim Anderson obliterates a baseball and allows his emotion to infiltrate baseball's generational stodginess. You can hear it when he talks about the game he loves to play, and when his voice picks up in excitement as he describes the dilemma he feels his chosen profession faces.    

"You got to be a really big baseball fan to really watch it," Anderson says. "You can't just be like, 'All right, I'm going to go watch baseball today,' because I don't even watch it. I don't watch baseball. I just love to play it, though, but it's boring watching it. I guarantee if you go grab anybody else on this street out there and be like, 'Man, you watch baseball?' I guarantee you, they say, 'No, man, that game's boring.' And I play it, I can't watch."

Numbers don't lie. America's pastime is struggling to capture new observers by nearly every metric. Attendance is down. Games last too long. Millennials aren't fans.

"I think that's going to be the best way to get that crowd—by just being realistic with it and just saying, 'Shit, we know the game is boring,'" Anderson says. "'We know the game's boring, man, it's a long game, we know it's boring.' So, you got to do dope stuff that's going to draw the crowd."

Dope stuff is Anderson's growing specialty.

Few probably watched Anderson's White Sox play the Kansas City Royals in mid-April—less than 15,000 did so in person—when he electrified the early MLB season by blasting a 418-foot home run off of Brad Keller.

"I see it like I didn't really hit home runs," Anderson says. "I mean, I hit home runs, but I don't really hit them like that. So when I hit it, I knew I got it. I knew I really got it. So, I think it was only right to do it. It was only right to flip the bat. So I did it. It was a cool moment."

He admired the ball's path into orbit for a few seconds, took a few steps in his home run stroll and launched his bat back toward his dugout.

"I'm definitely going to pimp it or do something dope when I know that I got it," Anderson says. "That's only right. You don't hit them like that every day. And when I hit it, you can just say that I blacked out from there and just emotions took over."

This was Tim Anderson’s epic bat flip that later lead to his getting hit and the benches to clear. pic.twitter.com/IzXTSTUX4k

— Around Da MLB (@AroundDaMLB) April 17, 2019

Retaliation didn't cross his mind. "Because I was just kind of in the moment," Anderson says. "But they did, and it is what it is."

Keller plunked Anderson during his next at-bat, resulting in both benches clearing. Keller got a five-game suspension, while Anderson got a one-game suspension not for the bat flip, but for calling Keller a "weak-ass fucking n---a."

Beyond the theatrics and mental gymnastics MLB utilized in suspending a black player for using that word, Anderson accomplished something that few other baseball players could. 

The sequence cut into highlight shows that would've otherwise been devoted to the NBA playoffs. Social media commentators suddenly had a new favorite baseball player. He brought excitement to baseball months before the MLB playoffs.

"You got to really celebrate those successful moments, because it is a failing game," Anderson says. "I think that's my reason how I play my game, because we failing most of the time. So when you do hit them home runs and make those dope plays, it's only right that you do what you feel at that moment and play with that emotion."

Anderson speaks from a place fewer and fewer players do. He's one of only 68 black players among the 882 names on MLB's Opening Day rosters, according to USA Today, and has seen how the sport increasingly loses touch with black fans.

"Black people don't really watch baseball, and I know that for a fact," he says. "So, I just try to go out and play hard. I think the cool stuff really draws the black crowd, and that's the bat flip and all the crazy stuff like that ... At that moment, I knew that the bat flip woke up the black crowd because I got a lot of feedback from the black culture. It was nothing but positive things."

Entering the final weeks of his fourth season in the majors, Anderson insists that he is only now beginning not just his career, but also his effort to expand the game's popularity.

"I want to leave a mark as far as when you think of baseball and someone say, 'Name a black player,' I want them to be able to name me," Anderson says. "I want to get more blacks into baseball and make more black people watch baseball, because all of my friends didn't play baseball. They was more so basketball and football guys. I was the only one that took the baseball route. So I think it's just more so getting our culture into baseball, because it is a dope sport and it's a safe sport and it's fun to play. I know it's boring to watch, though. So, that's kind of why I try to do different things that draw fans' eyes into the game."

---

Anderson's baseball path is one of the modern African American player. The sport found him more than he chased after it.

He grew up in the football epicenter of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where his aunt, Lucille Brown, and her husband, Roger, raised him as his father completed a lengthy prison sentence. Most of his family members played baseball. He often joined, but he found himself drawn to other sports.

"You're in a world wrapped around football, and baseball is behind," Anderson said. "And then I went to a school that was a basketball school. That kind of led me into basketball, and I kind of forgot about baseball."

The closest MLB franchise was in Atlanta, so Anderson would catch glimpses of the Braves highlights on SportsCenter of players like Andruw Jones, Chipper Jones and David Justice, but not much more.

"I never went to a big league game," Anderson said. "The first big league game I went to was the one I played in."

Following a stint in Little League, he played basketball at Hillcrest High School, but he broke each of his legs in separate incidents.

"I really wanted to give up on sports just because it was back-to-back injuries with legs," Anderson said.

But he decided to give baseball another shot during his junior year.

"The first game, I played defense," Anderson said. "I didn't hit. I played left field, and the pitcher hit for me. I just played defense. Then, after that, I started hitting, and I had one offer coming out of there."

That offer came from Neal Holliman, the baseball coach at East Central Community College. Holliman figured he had something in Anderson. He could run and hit. The rest, Holliman figured, would resolve itself.

"We couldn't hardly get him to say two words when he was here," Holliman said. "It's one of those things where you'll see somebody do something one week that they didn't do the week before, and then the next week, they do something that week that they didn't do the week before, but then they kind of plateau out. He doesn't ever seem to plateau out. It was just like a continual climb up a ladder."

It was also where Anderson demonstrated his flair for showmanship.

Near the beginning of Anderson's sophomore year, East Central was scuffling, losing three consecutive games by at least 10 runs. The Warriors rebounded during the season, and in the playoffs, they met one of the teams that had crushed them earlier that year. The result was going to be different this time as East Central sprinted out to a 12-run lead.

The win was all but official when Anderson decided to steal third base.

"Coach, we ain't done yet," he told Holliman after popping up off the bag. "We ain't forgot about when we went up there and they 10-runned us two games when we weren't playing good. We ain't done yet."

So much for unwritten rules.

"I really didn't pay those no attention," Anderson said. "I just went out and I did me, because I played the game, but I really wasn't into it like that."

The energy he brought was unmistakable and irrepressible.

"He just played with electricity," Holliman said. "But it was more about he just did everything, not that he's running his mouth, but he just did everything action-wise. I think he's letting himself go more [now], becoming whoever Tim's going to become."

---

This season felt different. After a promising rookie year in 2016 led to a pair of nondescript follow-up seasons, Anderson could sense he was on the verge of figuring things out. It's going to be crazy, he would tell his friends.

He felt his timing had been off. He studied his swing and tweaked it, standing straighter and loading up earlier to stay inside of the ball as long as possible. 

"I just had something to prove as a player," Anderson said. "What can I do to put myself on the map? What can I do to be better? What can I do to motivate kids on the South Side? And just going out and being free and just being comfortable in my surroundings  … I think the organization does a great job at just letting me go on out and being me and playing a game that I know how to play in a way that I want to play it."

Indeed, Anderson has put himself on the baseball map. Through Sunday, he led the majors with a .334 average. He's tried to use the added exposure to expand that baseball-appreciation map in areas where he thinks it's shrinking.

This past spring, he hosted around 75 children for a screening of the film 42 in celebration of Jackie Robinson Day. The event was part of Anderson's League of Leaders foundation, a group he established after the murder of his best friend, Branden Moss, who was killed two years ago while trying to help a victim of a violent beating in Tuscaloosa. The grief of the loss still lingers, but he's trying to channel it into positivity.

"You see kids that come in, they don't really watch baseball," Anderson said of the screening. "They don't really know what goes on in baseball. But for them to look at me and know who I am—they're getting in tune. But man, it was a heck of a show. The kids came out and saw the screen, and then we talked to them a little bit. But for the most part, I just tried to put smiles on kids' faces and let them be kids around me and give them something to remember and try to put a face with it."

A high ankle sprain paused his breakout season for more than a month this summer, but the downtime gave Anderson an opportunity to reflect on how much he had improved and how he could use his burgeoning stardom to attract new fans.

"People started to know who I was, and it just gave me a chance to step back and see the whole picture instead of just being in it," Anderson said. "That made me want to enjoy it a lot more when I got back, as far as doing things that give these fans something to remember me by, whether that's playing at a high level or pimping home runs and stuff. ... That's what these fans come to see. They don't want to come just watch the game and then go home; they want to see something dope. So, I try to go out and ... be a fun player to watch."

The responses to Anderson's celebrations from inside the game have been predictably mixed.

"From some guys, it's just, 'Do you, man. Do you. Do what make you happy,'" said Anderson, who added he received positive feedback from White Sox alumni such as Bo Jackson and Frank Thomas. "But for the most part, I don't really have a lot of friends around baseball, that's in the game of baseball.

"But ... certain guys ... just say, 'Play your game the way you play it. If you hit a home run, pimp it.' But that ain't nothing they got to tell me. I'm going to do that regardless. Because those are huge moments. ... And that could be the spark of something. ... That's the only way I'm going to be able to get the most out of myself, is playing at that high level with that emotion."

In the process, Anderson has become a bit of a social media star, sometimes posting a picture of himself entering a baseball stadium in fashionable threads or attaching music to his highlights.

"I think basketball does a great job in marketing their guys, and obviously those guys are good, but I think they're out there a lot more," Anderson said. "I think the kids see them a lot more than baseball players for us on TV, on social media. I just think that the marketing is kind of bad in MLB."

https://twitter.com/TimAnderson7/status/1122169417838858241

Anderson is trying to change that, no matter how it's perceived outside of the White Sox dugout.

"When I step in between the lines, I'm different," he said. "I want to be that guy you don't want to play against. I don't want you to want to play against me, because my goal is to go out and crush you every night.

"So, I don't really care about who on the other side. They strap on their cleats just like I do. So, when I'm going to go out and compete, man, we playing a competing game. This ain't no friendly game. So, I take every game ... and compete at a high level. You know, I think that's what I owe myself, is just to go out and play hard every day and do my best and have fun with it."

    

Jonathan Abrams is a senior writer for B/R Mag. A former staff writer at Grantland and sports reporter at the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, Abrams is also the best-selling author of All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire—available right here, right now. Follow him on Twitter: @jpdabrams.

Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Walton will soon add Major League Baseball broadcaster to his extensive resume.

NBC Sports Chicago announced Walton and Jason Benetti will call the Chicago White Sox's game against the Los Angeles Angels on Aug. 16.

Walton has been making the rounds in MLB lately. The two-time NBA champion threw out the first pitch at Petco Park before the Colorado Rockies-San Diego Padres game Thursday night.

Bill & Baseball’s Excellent Adventure pic.twitter.com/40wl6gG0Ne

— Cut4 (@Cut4) August 9, 2019

If that wasn't enough, Walton briefly delayed the game because he was having such a good time interacting with the umpires at home plate:

Tonight‘s game will not start on time, almost entirely due to the fact that after he threw out the ceremonial first pitch, Bill Walton joined in the exchange of lineup cards — and proceeded to talk for three full minutes without interruption. It was an awesome sight. pic.twitter.com/dvzIcOYcFE

— Kevin Acee (@sdutKevinAcee) August 9, 2019

The magic of Walton in the announcer's booth is you never know what he's going to say.

The White Sox are 51-62 and 18 games back in the American League Central. Bringing a new voice into the broadcast booth is a good way to ensure even casual fans will tune in to hear stories about the Grateful Dead and anything else Walton has on his mind.

Alcides Escobar was released by the Chicago White Sox organization Friday, and he did not go quietly. 

In response to the Charlotte Knights, the White Sox Triple-A affiliate, tweeting thanks to Escobar, the 32-year-old stated he had "asked for my freedom" due to what he felt was dishonesty: 

I asked for my freedom they did not let me free and I did it because they lied to me they are not honest 👍

— alcides escobar (@alcidesescobar2) August 2, 2019

Escobar was hitting .286/.343/.444 through 96 games in Triple-A this season, although the shortstop has most often been revered for his defense.

Escobar is best known for his eight seasons with the Kansas City Royals from 2011 to 2018. The All-Star shortstop arrived to the Royals as part of the trade that sent Zack Greinke from Kansas City to the Milwaukee Brewers. As a result, he was part of the core that brought the Royals a World Series title in 2015. 

Kansas City parted ways with Escobar following last season, and he briefly latched on with the Baltimore Orioles on a minor league contract in February before the organization released him in March. 

The Chicago White Sox announced Tuesday that they will extend Guaranteed Rate Field netting from the dugouts to each foul pole, per ESPN's Jeff Passan.

The news comes after a fan attending a White Sox home game against the Washington Nationals on June 10 was struck by a foul ball and hospitalized. The woman, who was seen holding a bloody towel to her head following the incident, was released the following day.

A young girl was also struck by a foul ball in the Houston Astros' May 30 home game against the Chicago Cubs. She was hospitalized as well.

Per Passan, White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf was the catalyst for the extending netting. A source also told Passan that "high-ranking officials from other teams expect it to have a cascading effect, with teams around the league pledging to extend netting," perhaps before the end of the 2019 season.

MLB required teams to extend netting from dugout to dugout before the 2018 season, but a move from foul pole to foul pole in all 30 MLB stadiums appears inevitable.

Another child was struck by a foul ball during the St. Louis Cardinals' home game versus the Miami Marlins on Monday. He was thankfully fine and returned to his seat, but others have not been as fortunate.

Per Vinnie Duber of NBC Sports Chicago, the White Sox will be the first team in MLB to install protective netting from foul pole to foul pole.

Chicago White Sox left fielder and Dominican Republic native Eloy Jimenez told reporters he is scared to return to his home country after David Ortiz was shot Sunday night. 

"Now, you cannot trust nobody there," he said. "When you see one of the best players—one of the best Dominicans we had—get shot like that, it's scary for everybody right now."

https://twitter.com/CST_soxvan/status/1138189057190760456

Anyi Lizardo, Amir Vera and Eliott C. McLaughlin of CNN reported Ortiz was shot in a nightclub in Santo Domingo and was placed in intensive care following surgery. His media assistant, Leo Lopez, said portions of his intestines and gallbladder were removed.

A spokesperson for the Dominican Republic national police told CNN "the bullet went through his stomach" after Ortiz was shot in the back.

The CNN report also noted Boston Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy said the team picked Ortiz up on a plane and will take him to Massachusetts General Hospital. The three-time World Series champion was in stable enough condition to fly.

Jimenez didn't just talk about his worries when it comes to returning home and pointed to all Ortiz has done for the community in the Dominican Republic.

"He's a great person. ... He does a lot for Dominicans," Jimenez said. "He represents a lot. And, for me, it's so sad."