White Sox get encouraging news on injured trio?

CHICAGO – In the midst of a dismal 2-11 start to the 2024 season, including an 11-1 loss to the Reds on Friday, the White Sox received some much needed positive news on the injury front prior to their series opener at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The timetable for third baseman Yoán Moncada’s return from a left adductor strain, originally set at 3-to-6 months, now looks more like a post-All-Star break comeback, according to general manager Chris Getz. All-Star center fielder Luis Robert Jr., out of action with a right hip flexor strain, has a timetable closer to six weeks with Minor League rehab work built into that estimation.

A lineup absence for designated hitter Eloy Jiménez due to a left adductor strain shouldn’t be nearly as long as his teammates, with Jiménez stating he felt better on Friday.

“Throughout this weekend, we are going to up his intensity from a running standpoint,” Getz said of Jiménez. “Hopefully we can get him out there and start playing.”

“He did a really good job this past series in Cleveland,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “He intensified it a little bit, he got up to about 75 percent. We want to get him between 85 and 90 percent and then assess it again and see what we want to do. But he’s getting really close.”

Moncada was transferred to the 60-day injured list among five Friday moves. The optimistic change for his return came as more information was gained regarding the injury, according to Getz.

“Obviously, it’s positive news and we’ll take that,” Getz said. “Those guys are impactful players for our Major League club. It’s better when they are out there than when they are not.”

Part of Getz’s media meeting dealt with the reason for these injuries and more so the reason behind the injuries for these three players. They have played together in only 161 of 558 games since the debut of Robert in ‘20.

Jiménez suffered his issue taking two steps out of the batter’s box on a groundout against the Tigers on March 31. The injury for Robert came on April 5 against the Royals when he rounded first on a ninth-inning double to left, and Moncada’s malady came on April 9 in Cleveland as he fell in a painful heap while running to first base.

Getz said all avenues were being explored to figure out the problem, but more time would be needed.

“Some of these guys are dealing with recurring injuries,” Getz said. “When you have an injury, you are at a higher risk of having a similar injury in the future. And that’s tough for players to accept and understand and organizations as well. It’s our job to prevent something like that from happening. Overall, it’s my job to build an organization that is resilient to injuries.

“Every team deals with them, and obviously we were hit with them here recently. But moving forward into the future, you’ve got to build out an organization to be able to take on some of these injuries and build out depth. We’ve certainly begun to do that just so when you are hit with them, you can continue to fight and compete and be as good as you can be.”

Losing one of these players would be tough for even the strongest of teams. All three being gone for a lengthy period of time makes life even tougher for an offense limited to one or zero home runs 11 times in 13 games, shut out an MLB-leading four times and sitting at 13-for-86 with runners in scoring position through Friday.

“Injuries are going to happen,” left fielder Andrew Benintendi said. “I’m sure there are guys in here right now who are banged up a little bit. It’s just trying to manage everything. It’s a long year.

“You are trying to play hard every single day. I feel for them. It sucks to see, but by the time you kind of sit back and sulk over it, it’s a couple of games go by and you can let those slip. You just gotta be mentally onto the next thing.”