The White Sox don't play until 6 p.m., and they took advantage of the extra five hours by waiting until after noon to release the Opening Day roster.
Maybe you can attribute part of the hang-up to Hanser Alberto and Oscar Colás, whose additions necessitated two spots on the 40-man roster, but the White Sox didn't have to do much work to resolve them. The Giants opened one by buying back Rule 5 pick Nick Avila, and the White Sox opened the spot for Colás by giving Leury García his unconditional release. Life without the previously longest-tenured White Sox officially begins now.
Alberto will wear No. 26, and Colás will wear No. 22, which is half of the No. 44 he wore in the minors, but belongs to Seby Zavala.
The Sox also open the season with three pitchers on the injured list, although Liam Hendriks (non-Hodgkin lymphoma treatment), Garrett Crochet (Tommy John surgery recovery) and Matt Foster (right flexor strain) were all expected to be there. That's preferable to a situation like last year, when the Sox surprised everybody with IL placements for Yoán Moncada and Ryan Burr.
The Sox could've placed Crochet and Hendriks on the 60-day IL, and while Rick Hahn says that Hendriks could start angling toward a return in May, they'll still have the possibility of a 60-day trip if somebody like Billy Hamilton makes sense on the bench toward the end of the month.
For the time being, here's who will be in uniform tonight:
Starting pitchers: Dylan Cease, Mike Clevinger, Lucas Giolito, Michael Kopech, Lance Lynn
Relievers: Aaron Bummer, Jake Diekman, Kendall Graveman, Joe Kelly, Jimmy Lambert, Reynaldo López, José Ruiz, Gregory Santos
Catchers: Yasmani Grandal, Seby Zavala
Infielders: Hanser Alberto, Tim Anderson, Elvis Andrus, Romy González, Yoán Moncada, Gavin Sheets, Andrew Vaughn
Outfielders: Andrew Benintendi,. Oscar Colás, Eloy Jiménez, Luis Robert Jr.
As for how those players will line up, the White Sox released the card at 2 p.m. My guess on this morning's podcast nailed the names, but not the order:
- Tim Anderson, SS
- Luis Robert Jr., CF
- Andrew Vaughn, 1B
- Eloy Jiménez, DH
- Yoán Moncada, 3B
- Andrew Benintendi, LF
- Yasmani Grandal, C
- Elvis Andrus, 2B
- Romy González, RF
I would've slotted Benintendi in the top half for when Houston's entirely right-handed bullpen relieves lefty Framber Valdez. I also had González between Moncada and Grandal for the inevitable pinch-hitting opportunity later in the game, but Pedro Grifol is going with the least proven hitter in the ninth spot, and there's no fault with that.
As for the Astros, their lineup looks a little shallower with José Altuve, but the top five still frightens, and José Abreu will be in the middle of it all.
- Jeremy Peña, SS
- Alex Bregman, 3B
- Yordan Alvarez, LF
- José Abreu, 1B
- Kyle Tucker, RF
- Yainer Diaz, DH
- Jake Meyers, CF
- Martín Maldonado, C
- Mauricio Dubón, 2B
First pitch is at 6:08 p.m. on ESPN, but with Roger Clemens guesting on the broadcast, you may want to join us on Playback instead. You can prepare by squaring away your login at playback.tv/soxmachine.
