If you told me the White Sox entered the second quarter of their season 13 games under .500, I would've assumed that Yasmani Grandal might've succumbed to one set of letters or another, be it DFA or IL.
If you told me that Grandal was enjoying a decent rebound, actually -- .270/.349/.426 and a 112 OPS+ at the plate, while holding his own defensively despite the runner-friendly rules -- I would've demanded to know more about the rest of the season.
And then if you told me that Grandal was leading the team in batting average, I feel like I'd have a better grasp on the situation without knowing anything about any other player.
What makes Grandal's season even more surprising is that it hasn't been associated with pristine health. He's left a pair of games with back spasms, and now he's fighting a hamstring issue that's allegedly unrelated to the back that bothered him last year (described as "straight hamstring," boiiiiiiii). He departed Thursday's game halfway through, sat on Friday, and then was a late scratch on Saturday.
It's not necessarily worrisome to see a 34-year-old catcher get two off days in a row given everything he's experienced between the knees and shoulder blades over the past two-plus seasons, and the Sox expressed some confidence that Grandal wouldn't need time on the shelf ...
... but Carlos Pérez's presence on the roster as a third catcher made it easy to think the Sox were downplaying legitimate health concerns.
The Sox are splitting the difference with their signs today. They're starting Seby Zavala a day game after a night game, which catchers don't typically do, but they optioned Pérez to Charlotte for Jake Burger, which suggests that Grandal can play if Zavala gets clipped by a wayward foul tip, needs a pinch-runner or pinch-hitter, etc.
Meanwhile, on my Friday appearance on Bernstein & Holmes on 670 The Score, Dan Bernstein asked me why Tim Anderson only has one homer since the end of last May. I posited that Anderson lacked legs in his swing after returning from the groin issue last year, and since this season started with another measurable lower-body injury and Anderson hadn't been driving the ball with any sort of authority since, the simplest answer is that he's playing without his desired base.
The before-and-after spray charts show a similar effect, whether in 2022 ...
... how he entered Saturday night's game.
Anderson did sting the ball a little harder on Saturday, although his assuming his first drive to right field had enough carry to clear the right field fence resulted in him turning an easy double into a single and an out at second.
Had Luis Robert Jr. not provided enough offense elsewhere, this might've been a bigger deal after the game, but the victory downgraded the episode to "egg on face," and the conversation was more about what Anderson had been playing through.
Similarly, Elvis Andrus' injury changes this conversation quite a bit. In a world where Andrus is able to play shortstop on a regular basis, you can argue that Anderson should've stayed on the injured list longer if it would've helped restore his physical tools. With Andrus out -- and with Romy González of all people taking his spot on the roster -- Anderson at reduced capacity runs laps around the rest of the field even at a reduced capacity.
Had the Sox not just spent an entire season hosting unavailable players on their roster beyond the point of retroactivity, it might be a little easier to give them the benefit of the doubt. For instance, the Sox are more or less stuck with managing Anderson's situation for the foreseeable future given the limited options at shortstop. Catcher set off similar alarms, but with Pérez heading back to Charlotte and an off day on Monday, hopefully everybody on alert will be able to stand down.
