Lengthy injury list aside, Chicago White Sox still measuring up
Rather than open Wednesday's Zoom interview raving about the White Sox's stellar play of late following a stale start, general manager Rick Hahn updated a growing injury list.
"I guess winning the equivalent of 16.2 (games) in a row comes at a cost, unfortunately," Hahn said.
While the Sox were stretching their winning streak to six games in the short season with a 3-2 decision over Milwaukee on Tuesday night at Miller Park, rookie second baseman Nick Madrigal and veteran designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion both exited with injuries.
Neither are season-ending, but Madrigal is on the shelf for a few weeks with a separated left shoulder.
"We are optimistic that with some treatment and rehab, Nick will be able to return to action for us at some point before the end of this month," Hahn said. "However, there is the potential at some point, perhaps in the off-season, he's going to need a procedure to stabilize the shoulder long-term."
Madrigal, who hurt himself sliding into third base, was 5-for-17 (.294) since joining the White Sox from Schaumburg last Friday.
The news of Encarnacion is much better. He has an inflamed SC joint and is day to day.
Hahn also had positive news on shortstop Tim Anderson and starting pitchers Carlos Rodon and Reynaldo Lopez.
On the 10-day injured list with a strained groin, Anderson is reporting to Schaumburg on Thursday. The defending American League batting champion should be back in the Sox's starting lineup early next week.
Rodon and Lopez are on the IL nursing shoulder injuries, but Hahn said both should return at some point this season.
Lopez is throwing in Schaumburg and could rejoin the White Sox "in the next few weeks."
Rodon left Monday's start at Milwaukee after only 2 innings but appears to be OK. "The preliminary scans were clean," Hahn said.
With that, the White Sox's GM was ready to move on to other topics. "That is, I think, the official body count right now," Hahn said.
Mounting injuries or not, the Sox were back home against the Brewers on Wednesday night following a perfect road trip.
After opening the season with 4 losses in five games and getting pounded on social media, the White Sox flipped the switch.
"For getting back to societal norms, having White Sox Twitter worked up over lineup decisions was a nice slice of normalcy for us all to go back to in the midst of a pandemic," Hahn said. "So that was good. Expectations are high. People are excited.
"People look at both the growth of the young guys, as well as some of the players we've brought in, and they sort of see how this thing could lay out for the better part of the next decade. With that excitement comes expectations.
"And if you get off to a stutter step on the start, then sure, there's going to be criticism. The expectations are high externally, they're certainly very high internally. No one internally was pleased with the 1-4 start. But the way that clubhouse responded speaks to not only their own expectations but their ability to respond to both high expectations as well as early difficulties."
Getting Anderson back next week is only going to add more fire to an already explosive offense.
Adding Madrigal, Lopez and Rodon down the road also bodes well for the Sox.
"I do think the best is yet to come, I do," Hahn said. "We haven't had our lineup that we've projected to have for the long term out there yet this season, due to the injuries. Even as fine of an offensive unit that we've had so far, I think we can be even more dangerous in the coming years, if not at some point over the course of the 2020 season."