PHOENIX — What do we think did it? Too many articles lauding the White Sox’s healthy spring training up to this point? A certain The Athletic beat writer pegging Eloy Jiménez as the most impressive player in Sox camp? The universe sensing there’s nothing else to write about in late March but anxiety about injuries?
Advertisement
Whatever the case, the Sox have suddenly been blitzed with seemingly minor injury concerns to major players. Within 20 minutes of an admirable effort to turn an infield dribbler into an infield single, right fielder Eloy Jiménez departed Monday’s Cactus League game and walked back to the team complex flanked by head trainer James Kruk. Walking with no apparent discomfort is much better than being carted off, and the Sox said Jiménez experienced cramping in his right calf and is considered day-to-day.
In a different context, this might be treated as a blip on the radar, since anyone running hard in the larger Salt River Valley area without some cramping is a mystery to this 35-year-old reporter. But Jiménez was limited to 84 games last season mostly because of a leg injury originally suffered while running hard to first base, and is also supposed to be the heart of an offense devoid of longtime anchor José Abreu. So it immediately triggers concern. To his credit, Jiménez dropped an estimated 25 pounds in the offseason in an effort to increase his mobility and durability. But with the Sox still anticipating he’ll play in the outfield, doubt encircles Jiménez’s ability to realize his potential to post monstrous offensive seasons until he does it.
“I wanted to do it because I was like that when I was in minor leagues and I had success,” Jiménez said of his offseason training plan. “So I thought ‘Why not do that here?’ The benefit is I’m quicker, I can run faster and I feel good.”
It doesn’t help that this happened less than 24 hours after third baseman Yoán Moncada was lying in a heap in short left field in Miami, having collided with a teammate on the Cuban national team while chasing a popup near the end of a blowout loss in Sunday’s World Baseball Classic semifinal. The White Sox announced Moncada was day-to-day with a bruised rib, amid other signals that it was not viewed as a serious ailment. But they were done no favors by initial word from the Cuban national team that Moncada suffered a concussion (he was merely evaluated for one).
Advertisement
“It’s a bruise,” said manager Pedro Grifol. “Contusion to the rib area or something like that, as opposed to concussion that people were talking about. It’s just a bruise. I was actually happy that he came out of that game. It was a 12-2 game at the time, why push through that? If he were here and we had to play this game and it meant something, he’d play today. He’s good. He’s going to be good.”
Moncada and Luis Robert Jr. are not expected to fly back to Arizona from Miami until Tuesday, and the soonest either will be available to play will be Wednesday. Perhaps by then first baseman Andrew Vaughn will have returned to swinging a bat. Due to lower back soreness, Vaughn has not played in a Cactus League game since the Sunday before last. His activity has been ramping up recently, as he accompanied the team out to defensive drills and played catch Monday morning, even though he stayed on the sidelines as his teammates ran the bases and simulated double-play turns with pitchers.
“I feel like it was everyday tightness,” Vaughn said Sunday. “I didn’t want it to go any further. Just being smart.”
Vaughn offered the possibility of taking a high volume of at-bats off a pitching machine as a sort of late-spring cram session if he misses enough time to necessitate it before the season, but Grifol downplayed the idea of even that being necessary.
“We did the right thing just giving him a blow,” Grifol said. “He’s got plenty of at-bats. We’ll get some more before we break and he’ll end up with 40, 40-something and that’s plenty. We play five days in a row when we start the season. He’ll get enough there too.”
At first blush, Vaughn, Moncada and Jiménez being out simultaneously would be a quick and convincing summary of “why the 2023 White Sox went 11-18 in April.” At the same time, they could all be playing together in a game that doesn’t count by this time next week. It’s a perfect scenario for freaking out about something that could easily wind up not mattering, and if that ain’t spring training, what is?
Advertisement
Because of the stakes of spring games versus the season, these sorts of shutdowns take place all the time and make smaller waves when they lap against less crucial pieces of the roster. Leury García has not played since last Tuesday, but was a much more active participant than Vaughn in Monday’s practice. Romy Gonzalez went eight days between appearances earlier this month due to what Grifol described as “body soreness” amid a heavy spring workload, but has since returned and bashed a homer and a double in parts of four games.
Failing to crack the headlines here is that reliever Matt Foster is actually hurt, sidelined with a right forearm strain that will keep him out of the rest of Cactus League play. A rookie sensation in 2020, an Opening Day member of the bullpen in 2021, and pressed into high-leverage duty for much of last year’s first half, Foster was not a good bet to break camp with the club this spring. But he was supposed to be readily available as experienced relief depth who thrived when his mechanics were in a good place, and now the Sox expect he won’t officially have a recovery timeline until the end of spring.
But overall, it’s been all right, for now.
“I give a lot of credit to our sports performance team,” said Grifol. “Geoff Head and his staff and James Kruk and his staff. They’re on top of this thing, man. More than anywhere I’ve ever been, or seen. They monitor stuff, they’re proactive with information, suggestions. I trust them and believe in them and when they give me something, I give guys the day (off).”
(Top photo of Eloy Jiménez: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)