MLBTR Podcast: Lenyn Sosa Traded, And Injury Concerns For The Astros, Cubs And Orioles
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The Blue Jays acquiring Lenyn Sosa from the White Sox (3:25)
- The Astros dealing with a mountain of injuries (12:25)
- The Cubs suffering a number of injuries, including losing Cade Horton for the season (22:30)
- The Orioles getting bit by the injury bug, including UCL surgery for Zach Eflin (31:40)
Plus, we answer your questions, including…
- Why did Konnor Griffin sign such a long extension with the Pirates? (39:45)
- Is Griffin’s lack of plate discipline in his first few games a concern? (48:50)
- With lots of guys struggling to hit early on, should spring training start earlier? (52:10)
- Do you have faith in Jakob Junis keeping the closer’s role with the Rangers? (58:10)
Check out our past episodes!
- Previewing The 2026-27 Free-Agent Class – listen here
- Lots Of Extensions And Big-Picture Topics – listen here
- The PCA and Sanchez Extensions, And Prospect Promotions And Reassignments – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of Jeff Hanisch, Imagn Images
Blue Jays Acquire Lenyn Sosa
The Blue Jays have acquired infielder Lenyn Sosa from the White Sox, according to announcements from both clubs. In exchange, Chicago receives minor league outfielder Jordan Rich and a player to be named later or cash considerations. The Jays transferred right-hander Shane Bieber to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot. Sosa is out of options and will also need an active roster spot once he reports to the team.
Sosa, 26, is coming off the best season of his big league career. In 2025, he stepped to the plate 544 times for the Sox and launched 22 home runs. Despite those long balls, his offense was only league average overall since Sosa doesn’t get on base very much. His 3.3% walk rate last year was less than half of the 8.4% league average. Michael Harris II was the only qualified hitter in the majors with a lower walk rate.
He also doesn’t provide much on defense, though he is versatile. He has played all four infield positions in his career but hasn’t played shortstop since 2022. Most of his time has been spent at second base, where his grades have not been good. Outs Above Average puts him four below par at that position in his career while Defensive Runs Saved has him 17 below average. His grades at the corner spots have also been below average.
He has been out to a slow start this year, with something less than an everyday role. The Sox were surprisingly able to sign Munetaka Murakami this winter and made him their regular first baseman. Sosa has been used a few times in the designated hitter spot, in addition to one start at first base and one at second. He has a .212/.212/.303 line in 33 plate appearances.
Sosa came into 2026 with just over two years of service time, meaning he can be controlled through 2029. However, he may have been getting squeezed a bit with the Sox. The Murakami signing filled the first base slot and also made Miguel Vargas the everyday third baseman. The Sox have been using Chase Meidroth as their regular at second base. Sosa is out of options and can’t be sent to the minors.
For the Jays, they have been bit hard by the injury bug in the early going this year. On the position player side, Anthony Santander required shoulder surgery back in February and will be out for several more months. Since the season has started, the Jays have lost catcher Alejandro Kirk to a thumb fracture, designated hitter George Springer to a toe fracture and infielder/outfielder Addison Barger to an ankle sprain.
In response to those injuries, the Jays have had to reach into their depth. Brandon Valenzuela has been recalled to help Tyler Heineman behind the plate. Eloy Jiménez was added to the roster to replace Springer. Tyler Fitzgerald, recently acquired from the Giants, has been on the bench but hasn’t been put into a game yet.
Most of the time, the Jays have an infield of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at first, Ernie Clement at second, Andrés Giménez at shortstop and Kazuma Okamoto at third. With Springer no longer in the DH spot every day, there could be a bit more flexibility to move some guys around. Okamoto is off to a slow start in his big league career, with a 35% strikeout rate through 60 plate appearances, effectively double his strikeout rate in Japan. Perhaps the Jays could put him in the DH spot a bit more regularly to have him focus on getting his approach down. Or if the Jays want to give Guerrero a little breather, he could DH while Okamoto or Sosa covers first base.
Sosa could also slot into the DH spot himself. Fitzgerald has options and could perhaps be the corresponding move for Sosa in the coming days, though if the Jays are squeezing Jiménez from DH at-bats, then perhaps he could be designated for assignment. Sosa’s righty bat could be used to pinch hit for some lefties. He had fairly even splits in 2025 but they have been wider overall. He has a .277/.301/.431 line and 102 wRC+ against lefties in his career and a .232/.261/.369 line and 73 wRC+ against righties.
There are certainly flaws in Sosa’s profile but the Jays felt they needed to bolster the position player group and there aren’t many options for doing that at this time of the year. Sosa has some pop and some flexibility, even if he’s not a standout defender. If things go especially well, he can be controlled for three more seasons after this one. But since he’s out of options, it’s also possible he gets squeezed in the coming weeks if the guys on the IL can get healthy.
For the Sox, as mentioned, Sosa was one of their better hitters last year but has been pushed into a part-time role this year. He is only 26 years old, so they could have held onto him, hoping for improved plate discipline and/or better defense going forward. But that would be hard to do with limited playing time and no ability to be sent to the minors, so they’ve cashed him in for future talent.
If they get any payoff from Rich, it won’t be soon. He was just drafted last year out of high school, in the 17th round, and is only 18 years old. He hasn’t yet appeared in an official game since being drafted. He doesn’t appear on lists of the top prospects in the Jays’ system, so he’s a long-term lottery ticket for the Sox. They could also add more talent later, depending on the player to be named later.
As for Bieber, he had some forearm fatigue in the offseason and the Jays have been building him up slowly. This transaction means he is ineligible to be reinstated until late May. He has been throwing off a mound lately but hasn’t yet begun a rehab assignment. Since he missed all of spring training, he’ll effectively need a full ramp-up, even though he’s now up on the mound. Whenever he begins an official rehab assignment, that can last as long as 30 days.
Photo courtesy of Brad Mills, Imagn Images
White Sox Notes: Hays, Benintendi, Sosa, Vasil
The White Sox introduced free agent signee Austin Hays this afternoon. The outfielder signed a $6MM contract with the rebuilding club, in large part because they’re well positioned to give him regular playing time in the outfield.
“Going back into free agency, I really wanted to go somewhere where I would have an opportunity to do that, play every day, get back to being able to play both sides of the ball, play defense every day as well,” Hays told reporters (link via Jay Cohen of The Associated Press). Hays played a semi-regular role with Cincinnati a year ago. He started a little over half the team’s games but got a decent amount of action as a designated hitter, playing just over 500 innings in left field.
That wasn’t entirely a decision based on usage. Hays had a trio of early-season injured list stints, all related to different areas of his left leg. He had battled a kidney infection in 2024. His most recent full season came in 2023, when he hit .275/.325/.444 in 566 plate appearances with the Orioles. Hays was an above-average everyday player in Baltimore for a few seasons. His recent production has been far more platoon dependent. The righty hitter has mashed left-handed pitching at a .335/.402/.543 clip over the past two years. His .233/.273/.387 line against righties is far less imposing.
The White Sox had arguably the worst right field situation in MLB before the Hays signing. He’ll be in the lineup against pitchers of either handedness and said he’s shooting to reach 140 games played. If he’s producing, he’s likely to be a midseason trade chip and might fit in more of a complementary role on a contender, but the immediate focus is on reestablishing himself as a viable everyday player.
Andrew Benintendi will be in the opposite corner. The left fielder is going into the fourth season of a five-year deal that hasn’t gone as planned. He’s a .245/.309/.391 hitter in more than 1600 plate appearances for the club. Owed $31MM for the next two years, Benintendi isn’t going to have any appeal on the trade market. General manager Chris Getz unsurprisingly said today that an offseason trade isn’t going to be on the table.
“We haven’t had too many conversations about Andrew, so we anticipate he’s going to be on this club come Opening Day,” the GM told reporters (link via James Fegan of Sox Machine). Benintendi has battled lower half injuries over the past two seasons as well, missing time with Achilles tendinitis and calf/groin issues.
That might lead to more work as a designated hitter in an ideal world, but the Sox are likely to lean heavily on their young catching duo of Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero in that spot. Their outfield is thin enough that they don’t have many options to replace Benintendi in left (or right, if Hays slides to left) on days when he’s in the DH spot. Luisangel Acuña is expected to get primary run in center field. Everson Pereira and Derek Hill would be in that mix if they break camp, while non-roster invitees Jarred Kelenic and Dustin Harris have clear paths to jobs.
All those players are out of minor league options. The Sox have taken fliers on a number of former prospects squeezed out by other clubs, but there are only so many bench spots available. Third catcher Korey Lee and backup infielder Lenyn Sosa are also out of options, so there’s limited roster flexibility coming out of camp.
The 26-year-old Sosa finds himself in a tricky spot. He’s coming off a 22-homer season that led the team. It came with an aggressive approach that left him with a meager .293 on-base mark. Sosa also struggled defensively at second base, where Chase Meidroth enters the spring as the projected starter. Getz said that Sosa is unlikely to factor into the outfield mix and mostly remained limited to the right side of the infield. Munetaka Murakami is going to play regularly at first base. Meidroth and Miguel Vargas are right-handed bats ahead of him at second and third base, respectively.
It’s unlikely Sosa will be in jeopardy of losing his roster spot out of camp, but Getz conceded “there is a little bit of a redundancy with the right-handed corner bats” on the roster. The Sox would presumably be willing to consider trade offers if another team looking for a righty infield bat called. He’s not going to pull a huge return, but there’s enough offensive promise that he should get some attention if Chicago makes him available. Speculatively, teams like the Pirates, Padres and Rays could benefit from adding a role player with that profile.
Turning to the other side of the ball, right-hander Mike Vasil tells Rob Bradford and Courtney Finnicum of the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast that he’s building up as a starter going into Spring Training. Vasil worked mostly out of the bullpen as a Rule 5 pick last year, only starting three of 47 appearances. He routinely worked three-plus innings and reached 101 frames altogether, so a swing role wouldn’t be much different than the one he handled as a rookie.
Vasil managed an excellent 2.50 earned run average in his debut campaign. His strikeout and walk profile wasn’t particularly impressive, though he kept the ball on the ground at a strong 51.4% clip. The Rule 5 roster restrictions are lifted in year two, so the Sox can option Vasil to Triple-A if they want him establishing a starting routine in the minors. It’d be difficult to take him out of the big league bullpen if he’s pitching at the same level he did last season, though.
The Sox are likely to open the season with a front four of Shane Smith, Davis Martin, Anthony Kay and Sean Burke if everyone is healthy. Free agent pickup Sean Newcomb can work as a starter or multi-inning reliever. They landed upper minors pitching prospect David Sandlin in the Jordan Hicks salary dump with the Red Sox, while Jonathan Cannon remains on the 40-man roster.
White Sox Option Andrew Vaughn, Tim Elko
The White Sox announced today that outfielders Andrew Benintendi and Mike Tauchman have been reinstated from the injured list. In corresponding moves, first basemen Andrew Vaughn and Tim Elko have been optioned to Triple-A Charlotte.
Looking at recent developments, Vaughn being optioned to the minors isn’t a shock. His bat has hovered around league average for most of his career but he’s been far worse here in 2025. He’s currently sporting a .189/.218/.314 line on the year. He has five home runs but the batting average is obviously rough. A tiny 3.6% walk rate means his on-base percentage is also quite low. His 44 wRC+ indicates he’s been 56% below league average at the plate this year.
Zooming out for a wider view, it’s been a pretty surprising trajectory. Vaughn was a slugger in college, hitting 50 home runs in 160 games for California, leading to a .374/.495/.688 batting line. The Sox took Vaughn third overall in the 2019 draft and signed him with a $7.2212MM bonus. The hope was that he was a potential middle-of-the-order bat who could be a key staple of the lineup for years to come.
It hasn’t played out as hoped. Vaughn cracked the Opening Day roster in 2021 but, as mentioned, his results have been fairly middling so far. He has shown a bit of pop but nothing special, finishing each previous season of his career between 15 and 21 long balls. The batting averages haven’t been great and he hasn’t drawn many walks. From 2021 to 2024, he took 2,258 plate appearances for the Sox with 72 home runs. His 20.3% strikeout rate was good but his 6.5% walk rate was subpar. His combined .253/.310/.415 batting line led to a 102 wRC+, indicating he was 2% better than league average in that time.
That’s not disastrous production but the Sox were surely hoping for more, especially because he doesn’t provide value in any other way. He’s not a burner on the basepaths, with just three career stolen bases. His defense isn’t great anywhere on the field. Earlier in his career, the Sox got him some outfield time while they had José Abreu at first. The results were disastrous, with Vaughn getting terrible grades from advanced defensive metrics. He has since settled in as the regular at first but both Outs Above Average and Defensive Runs Saved consider him to be subpar there as well.
Coming into 2025, it wasn’t even a guarantee the Sox would tender him a contract. In the end, they did, and avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $5.85MM salary for this year. For a club that lost 121 games last year, the hope was presumably that Vaughn would finally have a big breakout at the plate and turn himself into a viable summer trade candidate, but that has not happened.
For now, Vaughn will head down to Charlotte to see if there’s some way to get himself back on track, but it seems his rope with the White Sox is running out. As mentioned, he was a non-tender candidate at the end of last year. He can be retained for next year via arbitration but it’s hard to see that happening with this year’s swoon. If he’s down in the minors for a few weeks, they would gain an extra year of club control, but that’s not likely to matter if he’s a non-tender candidate anyway. If he shows any promise at all in the coming months, the Sox will surely try to flip him prior to the July 31st deadline.
Elko getting optioned isn’t a shock in a vacuum. He was only promoted two weeks ago and has a .161/.188/.452 line in his first 32 big league plate appearances. But he had been taking some of the first base playing time recently and would have been a candidate to replace Vaughn there. With both Vaughn and Elko getting optioned, the Sox are subtracting their two primary first basemen.
General manager Chris Getz says that Miguel Vargas and Lenyn Sosa will be mixing in at that position, per James Fegan of Sox Machine. Sosa is a utility player with a subpar bat. Vargas is a former top prospect who may be having a breakout at the plate. He struggled in his initial big league call-ups with the Dodgers and this year’s batting line was .139/.236/.203 as of April 21st. Since then, however, he has a .315/.379/.565 line and 166 wRC+. That’s still a small sample of 103 plate appearances but his previous prospect status perhaps gives it some credibility.
He has been the club’s regular third baseman with passable defense there. DRS considers him to be a roughly league average defender at that spot, though OAA has him at -5 in his career and -3 this year. Perhaps the Sox feel it’s better if he moves to the less-demanding first base position. Josh Rojas is playing third base for now but he’s not hitting well this year and will likely be traded if he turns his season around. Perhaps Vargas will move back to third if Vaughn earns his way back to the majors.
Photo courtesy of Jay Biggerstaff, Imagn Images
White Sox Option Colson Montgomery
The White Sox announced Tuesday that they’ve optioned top shortstop prospect Colson Montgomery to Triple-A Charlotte. He’ll begin the season there. Chicago also optioned righties Nick Nastrini and Owen White to Charlotte. Non-roster first baseman Tim Elko was reassigned to minor league camp as well.
The Montgomery news doesn’t register as a huge surprise, given the way his spring has played out. The 23-year-old is widely ranked among MLB’s 100 best prospects, but he was slowed by back spasms in camp and has only taken nine plate appearances thus far. The former No. 22 overall pick is also coming off a rough 2024 season in Triple-A. Though he hit well for the final five weeks of the season, he finished out the year with an ugly .214/.329/.381 slash (88 wRC+) and a 28.6% strikeout rate. A big spring showing certainly could’ve thrust Montgomery into the mix for a roster spot, but he’ll head back to Charlotte and work toward a big league debut that will very likely happen at some point in 2025.
With Montgomery headed for the minors, the White Sox’ options at shortstop include Jacob Amaya, Lenyn Sosa and Brooks Baldwin. Prospect Chase Meidroth, acquired from the Red Sox in the Garrett Crochet trade, is also still in the mix but is not on the 40-man roster. The 23-year-old Meidroth had a nice year in Triple-A Worcester in 2024 but has struggled in his limited spring work thus far. Amaya has seen the most time at short this spring out of any option for the position.
The White Sox only selected Montgomery to the 40-man roster this past November, doing so in order to protect him in his first offseason of Rule 5 eligibility. As such, this will be just the first of his three option years being burned (assuming he stays in Triple-A for more than 20 days). The Sox could’ve considered bringing Montgomery north in hopes of securing future draft picks under MLB’s prospect promotion incentive (PPI) program, but between his back issue, last year’s rough numbers and a 1-for-9 performance with five strikeouts when he was in the spring lineup, they’ll go another direction.
Nastrini started eight big league games last year but was tagged for an ERA north of 7.00 and walked more batters than he punched out. He whiffed a quarter of his Triple-A opponents but was still hit hard there. He’ll likely stay stretched out as a starter in Charlotte and should get multiple opportunities to establish himself in the majors in 2025.
White is a former top prospect with the Rangers who bounced around the league via waivers this offseason. He split 2024 between the bullpen and rotation for Texas’ top affiliate. White only pitched one official inning in a Cactus League game this spring.
White Sox View Miguel Vargas As Primary Third Baseman
White Sox manager Will Venable tells James Fegan of Sox Machine that Miguel Vargas is viewed as the club’s primary option at third base. He is playing a bit of first base in camp as well but will mostly line up at the hot corner.
Vargas, 25, became a key piece of the roster last summer. Prior to last year’s deadline. the Sox lined up a three-team trade with the Dodgers and Cardinals. Chicago gave up Erick Fedde, Michael Kopech, Tommy Pham and cash in that deal. In return, they received three minor leaguers, with Vargas being more of a high-profile addition than Alexander Albertus or Jeral Perez.
A few years ago, Vargas was a top 100 prospect. Baseball America gave him the #29 spot going into 2023. That’s largely on account of his huge numbers against minor league pitching, though he hasn’t yet translated that to the majors. He has hit .175/.273/.312 in 591 big league plate appearances thus far.
But over the past three years, he has hit .297/.412/.512 in 996 Triple-A appearances. That was in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but his 15.6% walk rate and 16.7% strikeout rate in that time were both great and wRC+ still considered him to be 31% better than league average.
Defensively, Vargas primarily played third base on his way up the minor league ladder, though the Dodgers moved him around the diamond. That was partially to improve his chances of cracking their crowded roster but also because his defense at the hot corner hasn’t been especially highly rated. He spent time at second base, first base and left field.
After acquiring him last year, the Sox gave him 36 starts at third and one in left. They overhauled their staff since then, bringing in Venable to be the new manager in 2025. It seems the new skipper doesn’t change the plan and they will give Vargas some run at the hot corner and see how it goes. Obviously, making offensive strides at the major league level is going to be important for Vargas but finding a viable defensive home is also going to be key. Now is a good time for the Sox to experiment, since they clearly have no hope of contending in the near term after their historically bad season in 2024. Vargas is still under control for five years, so there’s some time to come up with a clear answer.
The Sox signed infielder Josh Rojas to a one-year, $3.5MM deal last month. He has played more third base than any other position in his career, over 2,000 innings, but has over 1,000 innings at second as well. He’s also dabbled in the outfield corners, at shortstop and first base.
Perhaps Rojas will end up securing the second base job, if Vargas is at third. He will have some competition from Lenyn Sosa, though Sosa has hit just .229/.257/.347 in his big league career thus far and may get pushed into a bench/utility job. Rookie Colson Montgomery could perhaps take the Opening Day shortstop job. Infielders Jacob Amaya, Brooks Baldwin and Bryan Ramos are also on the 40-man roster with Brandon Drury and Nick Maton providing some non-roster depth.
Elsewhere on the roster, right-hander Prelander Berroa has been diagnosed with a grade 1 elbow strain, per Scott Merkin of MLB.com. Merkin says “it looks as if” Berroa can avoid Tommy John surgery “in the short term,” with next steps to be determined.
Berroa, 25 in April, came to the Sox as part of the Gregory Santos trade about a year ago. He has a 3.05 earned run average in 20 2/3 innings thus far in his career between the M’s and White Sox. Control has been an issue, with a 17.6% walk rate in the big leagues thus far. However, he’s also shown huge strikeout stuff, punching out 31.9% of major league hitters faced.
Obviously, a Tommy John surgery would be unwelcome, leading to an absence of over a year. The Sox will explore other options for the time being to see if there’s a way to get him back on the mound that doesn’t involve a surgeon’s scalpel.
White Sox Outright Danny Mendick
July 19: Mendick cleared waivers and is headed to Triple-A Charlotte, with Fegan among those to relay the news on X.
July 17: The White Sox announced that they have signed infielder Nick Senzel, a move that was reported last night. To make room for Senzel, they designated infielder Danny Mendick for assignment. They also optioned infielder Lenyn Sosa, leaving a roster spot open. James Fegan of Sox Machine suggests on X that Yoán Moncada could take that spot, though that’s not confirmed as of now.
Mendick, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Sox and was added to the club’s roster in late April. He has appeared in 47 games for the Sox, stepping to the plate 141 times. Unfortunately, he has hit just .197/.243/.318 this year. He has struck out in 24.8% of his plate appearances while walking at a 4.3% clip, with both of those being subpar.
This is his sixth straight major league season, with most of his offensive output being fairly uninspiring. He had a nice flash of brilliance in 2022, slashing .289/.343/.443, but that season was cut short when he suffered a torn ACL after 31 games. Overall, he has a .232/.286/.346 batting line and 76 wRC+ in 656 career plate appearances.
He has now been nudged of Chicago’s roster and they will have some time to try to work out the next steps, whether that’s a trade or trying to pass Mendick. DFA limbo can last as long as a week but the waiver process takes 48 hours, so any possibility of a trade will have to be explored in the next five days. Though with Mendick’s performance this year, interest is likely to be muted anyhow.
He can at least provide clubs with defensive versatility. He has played second and third base this year and also has some work at shortstop and in the outfield on his track record. He hasn’t been much of a base-stealer in his career but has swiped six bags without being caught this season. Mendick has an option and can therefore be kept in the minors if any club gives him a 40-man roster spot. If he passes through waivers unclaimed, he will have the right to elect free agency, both because he has a previous career outright and because he has more than three years of service time.
White Sox Designate Zach Remillard For Assignment
3:35pm: The Sox have now made it official, selecting Mendick and designating Remillard for assignment. They also reinstated John Brebbia from the injured list and optioned right-hander Nick Nastrini and infielder Lenyn Sosa to Triple-A Charlotte. Nastrini’s option means they will need another starter later this week.
11:15am: The White Sox will designate infielder Zach Remillard for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster for fellow utilityman Danny Mendick, reports Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. Van Schouwen first reported last night that Mendick’s contract would be selected prior to today’s game.
It’s the second DFA of the calendar year for Remillard, whom the White Sox designated back in January but selected back to the 40-man roster nine days ago. Now 30 years old, Remillard has spent his entire career in the White Sox organization after the team selected him in the tenth round of the 2016 draft.
Remillard has seen big league time in each of the past two seasons, albeit in fleeting fashion. He tallied 160 plate appearances last year and another five this season. Overall, he’s a .250/.292/.316 hitter in that limited sample. Remillard posted a nice .280/.373/.400 slash in 491 plate appearances during his 2022 run in Triple-A Charlotte, but those numbers dipped in 2023 and he’s out to a dismal .120/.224/.160 start through his first 58 Triple-A appearances so far in 2024.
While Remillard has primarily played third base in his professional career (2356 innings), he’s also logged time at shortstop (1646 innings), at second base (961 innings), at first base (696 innings), in left field (333 innings), in right field (133 innings) and in center field (76 innings).
The White Sox will have a week to trade Remillard, pass him through outright waivers or release him. Because he was outrighted after clearing waivers back in January, he’d have the right to reject a second outright assignment in favor of free agency if he goes unclaimed a second time.
White Sox Place Luis Robert Jr. On 10-Day Injured List
4:58pm: As noted by James Fegan of SoxMachine, Robert told reporters that he has a Grade 2 hip flexor strain and doesn’t have a timeline for return, though he added that his current strain is not as severe as the flexor tendon tear that cost him much of the 2021 season. Meanwhile, MLB.com’s Scott Merkin relays that manager Pedro Grifol told reporters that Robert’s injury will require more than the ten-day minimum absence. Like Robert, Grifol added that he didn’t know how long the absence would be.
3:19pm: The White Sox announced this afternoon that they’ve placed Robert on the IL with a right hip flexor strain. Sosa has been called up to take Robert’s spot on the active roster.
8:55am: Friday was a tough night all around for the White Sox, beyond the club’s 2-1 loss to the Royals. Center fielder Luis Robert Jr. was removed from the game in the ninth inning due to an injury to his right hip flexor, and right-hander John Brebbia was removed in the sixth inning due to a right calf strain. Robert came up limping around first base after hitting a double, while Brebbia’s injury seemingly occurred while fielding a Salvador Perez grounder. Brebbia remained in the game to walk the next batter he faced before being pulled.
Both injuries come with some backstory. Brebbia dealt with a calf strain during Spring Training, and made only two Cactus League appearances prior to the start of the regular season. Robert’s situation is more ominous, as a right hip flexor strain cost him close to three months of the 2021 season.
More will be known about both players later today, though it would seem like a trip to the injured list is very likely. James Fegan of the Sox Machine blog reports (via X) that infielder Lenyn Sosa is heading from Triple-A Charlotte to join the White Sox in Kansas City, and outfielder Oscar Colas was also pulled late from Charlotte’s game yesterday. If Colas was also added to the active roster along with Sosa, that could mean the team is comfortable going at least one day with only 12 pitchers on the 26-man, at least until they can figure out a more direct pitching replacement for Brebbia.
Beyond the potential losses of Robert and Brebbia, Chicago already placed another prominent name on the 10-day IL just yesterday when Eloy Jimenez was sidelined with an adductor strain. Between these injuries and a dismal 1-6 record, it is looking like another long year on the South Side in the aftermath of the team’s disastrous 101 losses in 2023.
Robert was one of the few bright spots of last year’s campaign, as the outfielder bounced back from two injury-plagued seasons to hit .264/.315/.542 with 38 homers and 20 steals (from 24 attempts) over 595 plate appearances. Since he made his MLB debut in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, this marked Robert’s first regulation-length full season, and it showed the talent that made Robert such a highly-touted prospect both in Chicago’s farm system and coming out of Cuba in 2017. The White Sox gave Robert a $26MM bonus as an international prospect, and then inked him to a six-year, $50MM deal before he had even played in his first big league game.
While the severity of Robert’s injury hasn’t yet been established, another lengthy stint on the IL could impact Chicago’s plans at the trade deadline and beyond. Robert’s contract (which contains club options for 2026 and 2027) makes him one of the more cost-effective talents in the game, and since the White Sox seem to have at least one foot in the rebuilding waters, trading Robert would be the most logical way for GM Chris Getz to restock the farm system with talent. Getz downplayed the idea of a Robert trade during the offseason, and given the amount of team control remaining in Robert’s deal, there isn’t any immediate need for the Sox to trade him soon. An injury could well make this a moot point for 2024, at least, though if Robert misses a lot of time, it will lead to some inevitable second-guessing that Getz should have sold high on Robert this past winter.
Brebbia is a much more clear-cut trade candidate for this year’s deadline, as the righty signed only a one-year, $5.5MM deal (with a $6MM mutual option for 2025) with the White Sox back in January. If Brebbia’s calf is able to heal relatively quickly, it shouldn’t have much impact on his deadline availability assuming he pitches well after his return, though injuries have been a significant part of his history. The 33-year-old missed all of the 2020 season and most of the 2021 season recovering from Tommy John surgery, and a lat strain cost Brebbia close to half of the 2023 campaign when he was a member of the Giants’ bullpen.
White Sox Giving Jake Burger Reps At Second Base
The White Sox will soon welcome Eloy Jimenez back to the lineup, which would potentially cut into the number of designated hitter at-bats available to breakout slugger Jake Burger. With Yoan Moncada holding down third base (Burger’s natural position) and Jimenez taking many DH at-bats in addition to some work in right field, the White Sox are getting Burger some reps at second base, manager Pedro Grifol tells Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times.
The experiment is “past the exploratory stage,” per Grifol — a strong indication that Burger will indeed slot into the lineup at second base at least occasionally. Logging work in the outfield is not under consideration at this time due to Burger’s history of Achilles injuries, but he’ll be mixed in at third base, second base, first base and designated hitter.
The White Sox’ desire to keep his bat in the lineup is understandable. Despite fanning in an untenable 32.4% of his plate appearances, Burger holds a robust .257/.315/.634 batting line thanks to a hefty 10 home runs in 111 trips to the plate. Burger has seen a massive 31.3% of his fly-balls clear the fence for a home run. While it’s unlikely he can sustain quite that level of power output — Aaron Judge had a 35.6% homer-to-flyball rate in 2022 and was the only hitter in baseball to even top 26% — there’s plenty of legitimacy to Burger’s power surge. Statcast ranks him in the 85th percentile of MLB hitters in terms of average exit velocity, and he’s in the 93rd percentile for hard-hit balls and the 99th percentile for barreled balls.
Beyond a pure desire to keep Burger in the lineup, the Sox are surely motivated by the catastrophic production they’ve received from the second base position so far in 2023. Elvis Andrus, Hanser Alberto, Romy Gonzalez and Lenyn Sosa have combined to take all of the team’s at-bats at second base this season. That group has combined for an unthinkably bad .144/.188/.207 while playing the position. Chicago second basemen have posted an astonishing single-digit wRC+ of 5 — indicating that they’ve been 95% worse than an average hitter when weighting for home park and league run-scoring environment.
Second base has been a black hole in the White Sox’ lineup all season, and while Burger likely won’t be an average defender at the position — he’s considered well below average at third base — the Sox are content to trade off some defensive shortcomings to bolster their run production. That’s been a familiar refrain for the Sox in recent seasons, as they’ve regularly trotted out poor defensive alignments — e.g. Andrew Vaughn and Gavin Sheets in the outfield — in the name of improving the offense. Of course, that approach was one of many reasons the Sox fell shy of expectations in 2022; last year’s White Sox ranked 24th in MLB with -17 Outs Above Average, 27th in Defensive Runs Saved (-35) and dead last in Ultimate Zone Rating (-40.5). Only the rebuilding Pirates and Nationals made more errors.
The organization’s hope heading into the season was for a more well-rounded, better defensive product on the field. The Sox let Jose Abreu walk in free agency, thus clearing the way for Vaughn to return to first base after he’d rated as one of the game’s worst outfielders. Andrew Benintendi was signed to shore up left field. Andrus, long a well-regarded defender at shortstop, was brought back to handle second base. Top prospect Oscar Colas isn’t seen as an elite defender but was expected to be an upgrade over the Sheets/Vaughn/Jimenez carousel in right field and was given the Opening Day nod at the position.
As it stands, however, the Sox are only a marginally improved defensive club. They’re still in the bottom third of the league in DRS, UZR and OAA. Andrus hasn’t hit a lick but has played a sound second base, so swapping him out for Burger would weaken one of the few solid spots around the field in order to help beef up a lineup that ranks 20th in runs scored, 20th in home runs, 19th in batting average, 27th in on-base percentage and 20th in slugging percentage.
Jimenez’s return and continued at-bats for Burger figure to boost some of those offensive rankings. But the White Sox, who ranked as one of the game’s best defensive teams as recently as 2020, are trending toward a third straight season on the opposite end of that spectrum.