Milwaukee hasn't been kind to one specific part of numerous White Sox bodies.
One game after Carlos Rodón left his start with a shoulder issue, Nick Madrigal and Edwin Encarnación both left tonight's game with shoulder injuries of their own. The White Sox described Madrigal's as as "injured left shoulder," while Encarnación's received the milder tag of "left shoulder soreness."
Encarnación's injury description fit the visuals, as he seemed to tweak something high on his left side while hitting a grounder to the left side in the fourth inning. He legged out an infield single and remained on the basepaths after a visit from the trainer, but when the DH spot next arrived, Zack Collins took his place.
Madrigal's injury looked like a broken wrist. He made an ill-advised attempt to go from first to third on Luis Robert's rocket single through the middle with nobody out in the third inning. Avisaíl Garcia made a strong throw from center field that beat Madrigal to the bag, and the tag did as well. Madrigal, sliding feet first, bounced his left wrist behind him in support, then immediately clutched it and headed back to the dugout with trainer escort.
Madrigal had broken the same wrist sliding into home during his junior year at Oregon State back at the end of February 2018, and that jumped to mind when seeing Madrigal grab his lower forearm area after such an innocuous play. Perhaps that was just to control the torque on the shoulder joint, but given that Rodón's shoulder issue seemed to be traced to his neck -- with the White Sox sounding optimistic about his chances earlier today -- we may as well wait for the promised further evaluation on both injuries before jumping to conclusions.
The Sox do have MLB-grade options at second base, although it's a little thin right now since Leury García is pressed into regular shortstop duty with Tim Anderson recovering from a groin injury. Danny Mendick replaced him at second on Tuesday, and he's probably the man going forward, with Ryan Goins providing relief from the left side of the plate. When Anderson returns, there may not be a huge disparity on day-to-day quality at the position. The lack of upside now and the missing development time for later would be the bigger concerns.
(Photo by William Purnell/Icon Sportswire)
