The White Sox made their first adjustment to the roster as they try to figure out the best way forward without Eloy Jiménez. Carlos Pérez is the corresponding roster move, but he won't be a direct replacement.
The Sox placed Jiménez on the 10-day injured list retroactive to May 6 due to the emergency appendectomy he underwent Saturday, although the retroactivity doesn't seem to matter given that the White Sox initially established a timetable of four to six weeks.
Pérez, who'd been hitting .272/.321/.553 with eight homers and five doubles in 27 games with Charlotte, will probably take some of those at-bats, but his presence primarily allows Pedro Grifol to use Yasmani Grandal as a DH with impunity.
Granted, Pedro Grifol has already deployed both catchers on a regular basis. Grandal had DH'd four times, pinch-hit four others, and moved from catcher to first in one late-game swaps. Throw in a couple of games he couldn't finish after tweaking his back, and Grifol has used both Grandal and Seby Zavala in roughly a third of the games he's managed thus far.
It'd probably be easier to live with just the two of them if Grandal weren't one wrong turn from being done for the day. In practice, Grandal's injury history has to be considered, and Grifol has even lacked an emergency catcher at times due to emptying the whole bench. Under these circumstances, Pérez will probably be handier than most third catchers.
Grandal will get the start at DH today with Seby Zavala behind the plate.
As for Pérez, he seems like he's talented enough to establish a decent career as a second catcher, but he needs about a half-season of regular play to better understand his shortcomings. He's had issues with receiving and his arm strength is below-average, but he blocks well and gets rid of the ball quickly, and so I've been curious to see how his strengths and weaknesses would balance out. A White Sox team that's on the brink of contending would have a hard time supplying that kind of experience in a forgiving setting, but if Jiménez's absence pushes the Sox past their saturation point for absorbing injuries, then maybe Pérez's time will come sooner than later after all.
If it turns out that Pérez isn't useful -- or if Pérez ends up stepping into a second-catcher role because Grandal's back keeps him out for longer than a day -- then you'll probably see Oscar Colás re-enter the discussion, or even Clint Frazier if the White Sox want a right-handed outfielder to complement Andrew Benintendi, Adam Haseley and Gavin Sheets. All of these options pale in comparison to Jiménez DHing most of the time, but as long as the core the White Sox have long envisioned is prohibited from playing together, the Sox will be relegated to juggling lesser permutations.
