Through 10 games, Joe Kelly had the lightest workload of the White Sox bullpen. Even Jesse Scholtens, called up by the Sox late last week, managed to throw three innings in his only appearance to date. Kelly had only thrown 2⅔ over three appearances.
Well, the White Sox placed Kelly on the 15-day injured list with a right groin strain, and that might explain why he's only thrown 10 pitches over the last four days.
(UPDATE: That isn't it -- after the game, it was explained that Kelly hurt himself running onto the field during Sunday's bench-clearing incident.)
The Sox called up Keynan Middleton to take his place, which gives the Sox three non-roster invitees on their 26-man roster (Scholtens and Hanser Alberto are the others). The Sox designated Jonathan Stiever for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster.
Kelly hasn't really been a part of the action, at least ever since he fell into a hard-luck loss back on April 1. He next appeared in the ninth inning of a game the Sox led by six on Wednesday before that 10-pitch, two-out showing on Saturday against Pittsburgh.
Considering Kelly spent time on the IL for bicep and hamstring issues last year, posting a 6.08 ERA around his absences, this news does little to shake the Kelvin Herrera vibes he's carried since the Sox signed him.
Meanwhile, Jimmy Lambert made his seventh appearance of the season in the sixth inning of today's game against the Twins, so that's who's been absorbing the workload. Lambert's been fine, but it's almost like he's shouldering the entire absence of Kelly and Liam Hendriks.
As for Middleton, he has 154 MLB appearances to his name, including 18 for the Diamondbacks in 2022. They weren't very good ones, resulting in a 5.29 ERA thanks to five homers over 17 innings. He lost a couple of ticks when he underwent Tommy John surgery
He's thrown three scoreless appearances for the Charlotte Knights thus far, with one hit and two walks against three strikeouts. One of those games came at Truist Field, giving us a little slice of Statcast data. His fastball averaged 96.9, which is good. He also threw more changeups (five) and sliders (four) than fastballs (three), which isn't the way he normally conducts himself.
Speaking of the Diamondbacks -- and to tie up a loose end on the last reliever transaction -- that's where José Ruiz is headed, as Arizona acquired the DFA'd reliever from the White Sox for cash considerations.
