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White Sox Place Nick Madrigal On 60-Day Injured List, Select Brian Goodwin

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The White Sox announced that second baseman Nick Madrigal is going on the 60-day injured list with a proximal tear of his right hamstring. Outfielder Brian Goodwin has been selected to the active and 40-man rosters in his place. Season-ending surgery is a possibility for Madrigal, general manager Rick Hahn tells reporters (including James Fegan of the Athletic). Madrigal has a complete tear of one hamstring tendon and a partial tear in another, per Hahn, who says the club will decide on a course of action for his rehab in about a week.

Madrigal left last night’s game after coming up lame while running to first base on a grounder. While there’s obviously still hope he can avoid surgery and make it back this season, his immediate placement on the 60-day IL demonstrates that even the best-case scenario involves a months-long absence. He won’t be eligible to return until the second week of August, and the Sox surely wouldn’t have placed Madrigal directly on the 60-day IL if there were any chance he’d be able to recover any sooner than that.

A former top five draft pick and well-regarded (if a bit divisive) prospect, Madrigal has begun his major league career in strong fashion. The diminutive infielder made his MLB debut last July, and he’s proven a highly productive player from that point forward. Madrigal has picked up 324 plate appearances over the past two years and combined to hit .317/.358/.406 (116 wRC+).

Madrigal’s quite an outlier in the modern game, which has skewed toward a three true outcomes style of play. The 24-year-old hits for virtually no power and rarely walks, but he’s one of the game’s preeminent contact hitters. His 7.9% strikeout rate this season is the second-lowest out of 142 qualified hitters (only Kevin Newman punches out less often), while his 91.8% contact rate leads that group. Overall, Madrigal’s atypical approach has paid off, as he’s hit for a high enough batting average to be a strong offensive player despite the lack of power.

He becomes the third young White Sox regular to require a lengthy IL stint. Left fielder Eloy Jiménez hasn’t played this season after straining a pectoral in Spring Training. His initial diagnosis called for a four-to-five month absence, so it’s possible he’ll return at some point in August or September. Center fielder Luis Robert went on the IL in early May due to a hip flexor strain. Robert’s injury shut him down from all baseball activities for three-to-four months, so it’s still not clear if he’ll be able to make it back this season.

In spite of those injuries, the South Siders find themselves in a good spot in the standings. At 37-24, Chicago leads the AL Central by four games over the Indians. FanGraphs gave the Sox an 83.1% chance of securing the division title entering the day. Madrigal’s injury figures to knock those odds down a bit, but their strong roster and early lead give them some breathing room.

That figures to reduce the urgency to acquire a second baseman from outside the organization, at least if further testing reveals Madrigal could return at some point late in the year. If the White Sox do wind up looking for an external upgrade, Adam Frazier (Pirates), Jonathan Schoop (Tigers) and Josh Harrison (Nationals) are among the second base-capable players who might find themselves on the market in advance of the July 30 deadline. For now, it seems Leury García and Danny Mendick are slated to man the keystone in Chicago.

Goodwin signed a minor league deal with the Sox last month. The 30-year-old has a useful .250/.317/.455 slash line in parts of five MLB seasons and is capable of playing all three outfield positions. Since joining the organization, Goodwin has put up a .244/.316/.395 mark in 95 plate appearances with Triple-A Charlotte.

White Sox Activate Adam Engel, Place Billy Hamilton On Injured List

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  • The White Sox announced this morning they’ve reinstated outfielder Adam Engel from the injured list to make his season debut. He’s starting in center field this afternoon against the Tigers. Fellow center fielder Billy Hamilton is going on the 10-day IL due to a right oblique strain in a corresponding move. Engel has missed the first two months of the year with a right hamstring strain. Hamilton has been among the depth outfielders the Sox have relied upon in center without Luis Robert and Engel. Over 75 plate appearances, the speedy Hamilton is hitting .217/.247/.406 with a pair of home runs.

White Sox Activate Andrew Vaughn, Option Gavin Sheets

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TODAY: Vaughn has been activated from the COVID-IL.  Sheets has been optioned back to Triple-A as the corresponding move.

JUNE 3: The White Sox announced they’re placing corner outfielder/first baseman Andrew Vaughn on the injured list. First baseman/corner outfielder Gavin Sheets has been recalled from Triple-A Charlotte to replace him on the active roster.

Vaughn’s IL placement is related to the coronavirus, although the club didn’t announce whether he has tested positive or merely been exposed to the virus. “In compliance with MLB’s existing COVID-19 protocols, Andrew Vaughn has been placed on the injured list,” executive vice president/general manager Rick Hahn announced. “Andrew is currently asymptomatic and our hope is that, similar to our other IL placements of this nature, he will return shortly to the active roster. At this time, no other players on the roster are impacted.”

The Sox decided to break camp with Vaughn after Eloy Jiménez went down with a torn pectoral in Spring Training. He got out of the gates slowly- not an unexpected development for a player who had previously topped out at the High-A level- but Vaughn found a bit of a groove at the plate by the tail end of April. Altogether, he’s put up a roughly league average .226/.316/.394 line with four home runs over his first 158 MLB plate appearances.

Vaughn’s absence will lead to Sheets’ first big league chance. The 25-year-old was the Sox second-round pick out of Wake Forest in 2017, and he’s been a productive offensive player all the way up the minor league ladder. During his last full minor league season in 2019, Sheets hit .267/.345/.414 in an extremely pitcher-friendly environment at Double-A Birmingham. He’s followed that up with a very good start to his Triple-A career this season, compiling a .319/.360/.500 mark over his first 100 plate appearances with Charlotte. Baseball America ranked Sheets as the White Sox #12 prospect entering the year, praising his raw power and lofty minor league exit velocities.

White Sox Place Michael Kopech On 10-Day Injured List

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The White Sox have placed Michael Kopech on the 10-day injured list with a strained left hamstring, per Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-times (via Twitter). The move is retroactive to May 28th.

Jimmy Lambert, meanwhile, has been recalled to be the 27th man for today’s doubleheader. He will start the second game. It will be the first appearance of the season for Lambert. The 26-year-old tossed two scoreless innings of relief in 2020. He is likely to function in more of an opener role than as a traditional starter.

Kopech boasts the beginnings of a breakout campaign. The lanky Texan has moved seamlessly between roles for manager Tony La Russa, putting up a 1.72 ERA/2.54 FIP across 31 1/3 innings. If he can continue with a 36.0 percent strikeout rate and 8.8 percent walk rate as he has thus far, the White Sox may have a premier swingman on their hands. As ever, however, healthy will be primary for Kopech.

Zack Burdi Called Up As 27th Man

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  • The White Sox recalled Zack Burdi to be their 27th man for a double dip against Baltimore today, per the team. Yesterday’s game in Chicago was cancelled due to inclement weather. The 26-year-old tossed three innings against the Red Sox on April 19th, allowing one earned run in his only big-league appearances of the season.

White Sox Expected To Sign Oscar Colas

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The White Sox are the favorites to sign outfield prospect Oscar Colás, hears Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com. The deal is expected to be worth $2.7MM, Sanchez adds. Cuban reporter Francys Romero first reported Colás’ connection to the White Sox and the anticipated $2.7MM signing bonus in March. As a 22-year-old with less than six years of experience in a foreign professional league, Colás is subject to international amateur signing bonus rules under the terms of the current collective bargaining agreement. His deal won’t become official until January 15, 2022, when the 2021-22 international signing period opens, per Romero and Sanchez.

The current CBA allots teams a hard-capped bonus pool, the precise amount of which varies based on clubs’ market size and whether they signed MLB free agents who had been tagged with a qualifying offer. During a typical signing period, teams are permitted to trade for additional bonus pool space. However, that’s not the case during the current period (which runs through December 15, 2021), as MLB barred the inclusion of 2020-21 bonus allotments in trades last June as part of their pandemic-driven rules changes.

Teams often come to verbal agreements with international amateur prospects a year or more in advance of the signing period in which they’re eligible to sign. Colás, though, was a surprising late entry to the market. After defecting from Cuba, he signed with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. A contractual dispute between Colás and the Hawks led him to seek his release, which he wasn’t formally granted until last December. By the time he was officially declared a free agent by MLB, most clubs had already verbally committed the bulk of their bonus pool allotment for the current signing period to other players.

That unconventional sequence will keep Colás from officially joining the White Sox until next winter, at which point he’ll have turned 23 years old. Despite the delay, the Chicago organization will no doubt be happy to add a decently regarded, if a bit divisive, prospect to the system. MLB Pipeline slotted Colás as the #2 talent in the 2020-21 signing period, lauding his power potential and throwing arm. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs, however, pegs Colás as a 40 Future Value prospect (more akin to a mid-level player in a farm system). FanGraphs also credits Colás with plus raw power but is more bearish on his hit tool and defensive projection than is MLB Pipeline.

Those reports (particularly FanGraphs’) may seem surprisingly pessimistic to fans familiar with Colás as the “Cuban (Shohei) Ohtani,” a nickname he’s gotten in the past for occasional work as a two-way player. Despite his arm strength, Colás wasn’t often deployed as a pitcher in recent seasons, and it seems his days of playing both ways in any capacity are over. Colás “no longer wants to pitch,” Sanchez writes, and the White Sox are not expected to use him on the mound moving forward.

Of course, the Ohtani comparison was never fair to Colás to begin with. The Angels star is squarely in the AL MVP conversation this season thanks to a two-way performance the sport hasn’t seen the likes of for decades. If Colás “only” becomes a solid power-hitting corner outfielder, which seems within the range of possibilities based on public evaluations, his signing would more than make for a worthwhile investment for the South Siders.

White Sox Select Ryan Burr

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The White Sox have selected the contract of right-hander Ryan Burr, moved injured center fielder Luis Robert to the 60-day IL and placed righty Michael Kopech on the bereavement list, James Fegan of The Athletic tweets.

The 26-year-old Burr has been a member of the Chicago organization since it acquired him from Arizona in August 2017, but he has seen little major league action to this point. He combined for 29 1/3 innings of 5.52 ERA pitching with the White Sox from 2019-20, after which they re-signed him to a minor league contract. The former Tommy John patient hasn’t put up many innings between Double-A and Triple (58 combined), but he does carry a 2.15 ERA in 180 1/3 minor league frames.

As for Robert, it’s no surprise he’s going to the 60-day IL. The White Sox lost the prized center fielder for three to four months because of a Grade 3 hip flexor strain on May 3, so the 60-day placement is just a procedural move on the team’s part.

Adam Engel To Begin Rehab Assignment

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  • Adam Engel told The Athletic’s James Fegan (Twitter links) and other reporters that his minor league rehab assignment will begin tomorrow.  The White Sox outfielder has yet to play this season due to a hamstring strain, as Engel explained that his rehab was slowed by a further injury that tore the muscle off his tendon, increasing his strain from a Grade 2 to a Grade 3.

MLB Suspends Twins Tyler Duffey, Rocco Baldelli

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5:57 pm: Duffey has agreed to a reduced two-game suspension, Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press was among those to relay (Twitter link). He’ll sit out the second game of today’s doubleheader and tomorrow’s contest against the Indians.

4:38 pm: Major League Baseball announced that Twins reliever Tyler Duffey has been suspended for three games and fined an undisclosed amount for “intentionally throwing a pitch behind Yermín Mercedes of the Chicago White Sox during the top of the seventh inning of Tuesday night’s game at Target Field.” Duffey has elected to appeal his suspension, so he remains active pending the appeals process. Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli was suspended for one game and fined for the incident. Baldelli will serve his suspension during the nightcap of today’s doubleheader with the Angels.

It’s the latest development in the strange unwritten rules saga that has transpired between Chicago and Minnesota over the past few days. With the White Sox leading the Twins 15-4 in the top of the ninth on Monday night, Mercedes stepped in to hit against Minnesota utilityman Willians Astudillo, who had been called on to pitch a mop-up inning. On a 3-0 count, Mercedes swung at a 47.1 MPH Astudillo offering and hit a home run to center field.

After the game, Chicago manager Tony La Russa called out his own player, saying Mercedes made a “big mistake” swinging at the pitch (via Jesse Rogers of ESPN). “I was upset because that’s not a time to swing 3-0. I knew the Twins knew I was upset,” La Russa told reporters. … “He missed a 3-0 take sign. With that kind of lead, that’s just sportsmanship and respect for your opponent. … There will be a consequence he has to endure here within our family. It’s a learning experience.”

Mercedes, though, was publicly backed by a few of his teammates. Chicago starter Lance Lynn commented on the situation (via Chris Emma of 670 the Score), saying “there are no rules” when a position player is on the mound and noting the sport’s unwritten code of conduct has been relaxed in recent seasons. (La Russa, when asked about Lynn’s comments, said he “(doesn’t) agree” and noted that “Lance has a locker. I have an office,” in reference to his status as the club’s manager). Shortstop Tim Anderson, meanwhile, posted “The game wasn’t over! Keep doing you, big daddy” on Instagram, to which Mercedes replied “Yes sir, let’s do it, baby.”

It seems at least some members of the Twins organization also took exception to Mercedes’ swing decision. During Tuesday night’s game between Minnesota and Chicago, Duffey threw a first-pitch fastball behind Mercedes’ back. The reliever was ejected by home plate umpire Jim Reynolds, as was Baldelli. Duffey was replaced by Alex Colomé, who walked Mercedes on four pitches. Other than an innocuous hit by pitch of Jake Lamb by Twins starter Bailey Ober earlier in the game, no players were hit in either of the final two games of the series. No other players or coaches were ejected.

La Russa, for his part, continued to attract controversy after Tuesday’s game. He doubled down on his conviction that Mercedes’ decision to swing at the pitch was unacceptable and said he “(didn’t) have a problem with how the Twins handled it” when asked about Duffey’s pitch (via Ryan McGuffey of NBC Sports Chicago). La Russa’s public disagreement with at least of a few of the Sox most notable stars has drawn plenty of attention around the league throughout the week.

It’s a bizarre situation (particularly for how publicly it’s played out) that could continue to draw unwanted attention to White Sox players and coaches as the season progresses, given La Russa’s reputation as an old-school manager and the young Chicago clubhouse. If there is strife between the players and the coaching staff, it hasn’t seemed to affect the Sox on the field. Chicago has an AL-best 26-16 record.

Latest On Adam Engel

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  • Adam Engel has missed the entire season due to a hamstring strain but could be nearing a rehab assignment, White Sox manager Tony La Russa told MLB.com’s Scott Merkin and other reporters.  Engel “certainly is looking more like himself” in workouts, according to La Russa, and “as far as the physical getting to 100 percent, I think he’s either there or very close.”  Engel’s return would be welcome news to an injury-plagued Chicago outfield, particularly if Engel can combine his normal strong glovework with the offensive improvement (.295/.333/.477 in 93 PA) he showed in the 2020 campaign.
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