The White Sox could welcome third baseman Yoan Moncada back tomorrow, manager Pedro Grifol tells reporters, including James Fegan of The Athletic. It doesn’t seem to be confirmed yet but Moncada, who has been rehabbing with Triple-A Charlotte, won’t be playing with them tonight.
Moncada was off to a great start this year, hitting .308/.325/.564 through nine games before landing on the injured list with back tightness. It was later revealed that the pain was caused by a protruding disc that was touching a nerve. It seems he’s moved passed the issue, if the minor league numbers are any indication. He’s hit a comical .571/.667/1.071 through five rehab games for Charlotte. Getting Moncada back without missing a beat would be a tremendous boost for the Sox, who have also seen Moncada’s replacement Jake Burger hit the injured list recently.
2022 was a disappointing season for Moncada, who dealt with various injuries and hit just .212/.273/.353 in 104 games. But a healthy Moncada can be a gamechanger, as he showed with a .263/.375/.412 performance in 2021. With a 13-26 record, they’ll need a boost like that to help them get back into contention.
Some other notes from around the American League Central…
- Twins infielder Royce Lewis began a rehab assignment today with Double-A Wichita. As Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic writes, Lewis is expected to play both shortstop and third base during his rehab stint as he looks to recover from last year’s torn ACL. A shortstop for the majority of his career thus far, Lewis started spending a bit of time in the outfield last year in deference to Carlos Correa. Now that Correa is locked in as the shortstop in Minnesota for the foreseeable future, he probably has a better path to playing time at third, where the club just optioned José Miranda yesterday. The first overall pick in the 2017 draft, Lewis has long been considered one of the top prospects in baseball but has been frequently held back by injuries. He posted an excellent .300/.317/.550 batting line in his first 12 major league games last year before tearing the ACL in his right knee, the second year in a row he was felled by tearing that ligament.
- Rays’ fans were dealt a minor scare yesterday when Tyler Glasnow left his rehab outing after one inning because of some side soreness. The club maintained the removal was precautionary, and it doesn’t seem there’s any cause for concern. Manager Kevin Cash told reporters before tonight’s win over the Yankees that Glasgow’s tests came back clear and he’s expected to resume his rehab stint next Tuesday (via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). The big righty is ticketed for one following rehab start as he works back from an oblique strain that sent him to the IL to open the season. He should be back in the MLB rotation thereafter if all goes as planned. The Rays have had no issues without Glasnow, sprinting to a 30-9 start to open the year.
Glasnow.
Yes, and Braveheart was an overrated movie.
There are teams missing 3/5ths of their Opening Day starting rotation and working on their second tier of depth options while Tampa Bay welcomes back a staff ace #1 starter to their rotation whom they didn’t even miss one iota while he was out. Must be nice feeling.
Tampa is missing 2 Cy Young caliber pitchers (Glasnow and Springs), and its closers from this year (Fairbanks) and 2 years ago (Kittredge), so it’s not all sunshine and daisies in Raysland right now. But yeah, it is a nice feeling hoping/believing/expecting Glas will return by the end of the month (Fairbanks even sooner). This time next year the Rays will be getting back former top prospect Baz and the aforementioned Springs, so you’ll be able to take this complaint off the shelf and reuse it. Gotta have 8 really good starting pitchers (or great luck on the injury front) to make a deep playoff run. Rays know this.
Lol. Nothing with his injury history is precautionary(Glasnow)
Moncada showed signs of his 2019 form, before he caught COVID, at the end of last season. After watching him in the wbc and early this season with the Sox, it looks like we’ve got some much needed help back in the line up.
*Applauds* Thanks for actually saying something positive for a change lol
Yup, getting the ‘highly motivated and always focused’, Moncada back, should really help – I think I heard Stoney saying something to that effect. He should fit right in with Roberts. Yesterday when Roberts hit the double down the LF line, it honestly looked like he never intended to run.
As long as he does not forget his bat in AAA like he has for most of his time in Chicago. Moncada is maddening.. He is a good hitter, and good fielder…when he wants to be. The guy has a lot of potential. His problem is he does not have any coaches/manager that have gotten nito his face and challenged him to be that good player EVERY day, not just when he wants to make the effort. It seemed like Grofl may be that guy.. possibly, it sounds like someone had a talk with Robert about putting in effort after that whole playing while injured and not knowing his bench coaches name thing from a couple of weeks ago as he looks like a different player after that. I just think with all of these guys its not a question of performance, its a question of motivation.
Happy to see Lewis back on the field. I know that guy has been chomping at the bit hard for a long time now and the Twins have been super cautious to try and avoid re-aggravating the injury. Hopefully, 2022 wasn’t all an illusion!
There was so much hype around Moncada. I wonder if he will still meet the all-star greatness so many teams bid on when he was made available,