Sox's Moncada doing his best to change injury-prone image

Yoan Moncada played in only 104 games last season, landing on the injured list three times with oblique and hamstring injuries.

He also had hamstring issues in 2018-19 and was slowed by COVID-19 in 2020.

Fair or not, the White Sox's third baseman has developed a reputation for being injury prone. Moncada is trying to change that perception this year.

"I haven't been here in seasons past, but I know what I know now," first-year Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. "He loves to play the game and he's not afraid to play hurt, he's not afraid to play with pain. I don't know if he's done that in the past or not. I know he's doing it now and I appreciate that.

"I'm proud of him for doing that and giving us everything he's got every day."

Moncada has already missed a month with a disc problem in his lower back, and it looked like he reinjured himself during Tuesday night's win over the Angels.

"It's the same thing that's been bothering him the whole year," Grifol said of Moncada's back. "There are times where it really grabs and there are times when he feels really good. (Tuesday), he was at first base and he scored from first in 11.1 seconds. And then he'll take a swing where it grabs."

Instead of sitting out Wednesday afternoon, Moncada played his 16th game in as many days. More than any other player on the White Sox's roster, he'll take advantage of Thursday's break in the schedule.

"Some of these guys are really grinding," Grifol said. "And they get evaluated on their performance every single day, and their effort. At times, that's not the case. At times, the case is that these guys are grinding through some injuries and through some stuff. It was a tough month, we played a lot of games this month. And this month coming up, we're going to have some extra days (off) that I think are going to benefit some of these guys and hopefully they can recover and get back to close to 100 percent because these guys are not 100 percent right now."

Clevinger update:

After throwing live batting practice Monday afternoon, injured starting pitcher Mike Clevinger says he felt "really good."

On the injured list with a sore right wrist, Clevinger is likely to be activated Friday and start against the Tigers at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Since the right-hander has been out since May 18, his pitch count is expected to be limited.

"It depends how he feels, too," manager Pedro Grifol said.

In 9 starts for the Sox, Clevinger is 3-3 with a 4.56 ERA.