I’m not sure how this will go, but I felt like it may be a good idea to have a dedicated thread to both track injury related updates on key players and discuss the implications to the rest of the roster. Below is a list of 16 players currently on some form of IL who were or are expected to be part of the major league mix.

Out for Season:

• Baldwin, UT - Elbow (4/1)

• Murray, IF - Shoulder (4/26)

• Vasil, RHP - TJS (Mar)

60 Day IL:

• Teel, CA - LCL (5/19)

• Bush, LHP - Shoulder (Apr/May)

• Thorpe, RHP - Appendix (Apr/May)

• Berroa, RHP - Elbow (Apr/May)

• Leasure, RHP - Forearm (5/27)

10/15 Day IL:

• Murakami, 1B - Hamstring (5/29)

• Hays, OF - Calf (5/1)

• Pereira, OF - Pectoral (4/28)

• Schultz, LHP - Patellar (5/24)

• Hicks, RHP - Lat (5/20)

AAA IL:

• S. Smith, RHP - Rotator Cuff (5/3)

• McDougal, RHP - Flexor (4/29

• Gonzalez, RHP - Lat (4/30)

First take is it feels like a crazy amount of injuries. Yes, there is a wave of TJS guys from last year who would still be rehabbing, but three of them have had setbacks and put their ability to contribute this year in question. Hopefully we can get updates on Thorpe, Bush, & Berroa at some point in the near future, but right now Mason Adams is the only TJS guy from last progressing well.

Update: Teel was to begin a running program yesterday per Bruce Levine. His original timetable was 3 to 6 weeks for this new knee injury. He’s at just shy of two weeks right now, so hopefully he’s a bit ahead of schedule and closer to the low end of the range. If he’s ready in two more weeks, he’d miss the Braves & Dodgers series, but would be back for the Yankees & Guardians. I’d consider that a win at this point.

The other question is when he returns, which catcher gets demoted to AAA? Romo has been the far more productive player and has been killing LHP, which is something Quero should be doing in theory. That being said, Quero has been heating up a bit with a 160 wRC+ since the Cubs series (some BABIP luck for sure though). Right now, I’d lean keeping Romo and letting Quero get everyday at bats in AAA.

18 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Update: Teel was to begin a running program yesterday per Bruce Levine. His original timetable was 3 to 6 weeks for this new knee injury. He’s at just shy of two weeks right now, so hopefully he’s a bit ahead of schedule and closer to the low end of the range. If he’s ready in two more weeks, he’d miss the Braves & Dodgers series, but would be back for the Yankees & Guardians. I’d consider that a win at this point.

The other question is when he returns, which catcher gets demoted to AAA? Romo has been the far more productive player and has been killing LHP, which is something Quero should be doing in theory. That being said, Quero has been heating up a bit with a 160 wRC+ since the Cubs series (some BABIP luck for sure though). Right now, I’d lean keeping Romo and letting Quero get everyday at bats in AAA.

Catching is tough on the knees, since Quero is starting to hit maybe they should take it easy with Teel and have him DH awhile.

34 minutes ago, The Mighty Mite said:

Catching is tough on the knees, since Quero is starting to hit maybe they should take it easy with Teel and have him DH awhile.

That’s definitely an option, but it would make Benintendi fairly useless that’s basically his entire role. My guess is they will use him at catcher once ready but maybe go with a 50/50 split rather than a full platoon to help ease him back.

Update: Austin Hays has now played in two consecutive games at Charlotte and is a combined 2/9 with no XBH. He’s played one game in both LF & RF, which I’d view as a positive sign for his hamstring given they aren’t easing him back in by DH’ing. That being said, we’re probably looking at a 7 to 10 game rehab assignment given how much time he’s missed. The Knights head to Durham next week for a six game series and I’d expect that would be the last set of games for Hays if all goes well. My guess is the Sox are targeting a return of June 9th when they kick off a big series at home against the Braves.

In terms of what that means for the broader roster, it feels like Acuna should be the guy to go first for obvious reasons. With Gonzalez now on the major league roster, there is also less of a need to have a guy who can backup SS. The other option would be Rikuu as I expect Hays to get a lot of reps against RHP (likely in RF) if he’s fully healthy. That would push Rikuu to a true reserve role with his only real utility vs. Acuna being LH. Candidly, I’m not a huge fan of their player, but would probably keep Rikuu until Pereira is back.

Update: Everson Pereira is making good progress in his throwing program per James Fegan and a rehab assignment should be coming soon. If all goes well, my guess is he likely makes his way to Durham at some point for the Knights upcoming six game series. Apparently Venable said it would be a lengthy rehab assignment, so I’m guessing the target is around 14 games or so.

https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/white-sox-injuries-and-roster-moves

5 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Update: Teel was to begin a running program yesterday per Bruce Levine. His original timetable was 3 to 6 weeks for this new knee injury. He’s at just shy of two weeks right now, so hopefully he’s a bit ahead of schedule and closer to the low end of the range. If he’s ready in two more weeks, he’d miss the Braves & Dodgers series, but would be back for the Yankees & Guardians. I’d consider that a win at this point.

The other question is when he returns, which catcher gets demoted to AAA? Romo has been the far more productive player and has been killing LHP, which is something Quero should be doing in theory. That being said, Quero has been heating up a bit with a 160 wRC+ since the Cubs series (some BABIP luck for sure though). Right now, I’d lean keeping Romo and letting Quero get everyday at bats in AAA.

Romo killing LHP or did you mean RHP ? I mean he only has 13 PA against LHP and is officially 1 for 9 which was a HR and 4 walks so his OBP and OPS looks good but its a very small sample with just 1 hit.

5 hours ago, Lip Man 1 said:

https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/white-sox-injuries-and-roster-moves

Glad to to see Thorpe is back pitching after his appendectomy.