Just this Sunday, Yoán Moncada held court with beat reporters on the weight of seeing White Sox teammates Luis Robert Jr. and Eloy Jiménez stagger off the field in pain.
"It’s complicated," Moncada said through an interpreter. "It’s difficult. I’ve been through that. I know how they feel. Seeing them there is not a good feeling. It’s difficult. It’s definitely complicated."
It wasn't long before Moncada's own physical situation begin to look complicated too, even before he was placed on the 10-day injured list Wednesday with a left adductor strain. As confirmed last night, Oscar Colás was recalled to take Moncada's place on the roster. The White Sox estimated Moncada's recovery time at 3-6 months, which given his contract situation ($25 million team option for next year), threatens to end his tenure with the team.
Later that same Sunday, Moncada sprayed a soft line drive down the left field line that offered a chance for a hustle double, only for the Sox third baseman to commit eartly to an ambling half-trot up the first base line. Six innings later when the baserunning read was less ambiguous, Moncada turned it on for two bases, but with a visible discomfort that demonstrated why he hadn't previously been forcing things.
So Daryl Van Schouwen relaying that Moncada was battling hip and groin soreness Tuesday morning could just as easily be read as postscript for how he had looked for a few days even while hitting .282/.364/.410, rather than foreshadowing for the grisly, potentially season-ending injury that followed.
We're less than two years removed from everyone learning about the tendon that connects the hamstring muscle to the back of the knee because Yasmani Grandal, Lance Lynn and Eloy Jiménez all suffered similar injuries to it within a 10-month span. Adductor strains are less obscure, but anything that felled two positional regulars while running up the baseline in the first 11 games would spur questions on why the White Sox have proven uniquely vulnerable. If anything, there will be lessons to be had on the variance of severity, since Moncada won't play again until after the All-Star break and Jiménez had early designs on missing the IL entirely.
By the time October arrives, the 2021 season will still be the last time Moncada has cleared 130 games played in a season, and even that campaign was filled with mentions that he was playing through nagging issues as he treaded water through the second half. Injuries aren't the totality of it, but the unstable nature of Moncada's production has forced the Sox to plan a future beyond him, and the latest round of frustrated quotes from him and Jiménez have carried a tone of wistfulness for a window gone by.
"Remembering all these years with everything that happened, it's really frustrating," Jiménez said last Thursday, before suffering a setback that further clouds his return date. "Especially when you've been feeling good and you've been preparing yourself good and something happens."
As much as their conditioning has been, is being and will continue to be scrutinized, a common tone amid this three-punch combo of White Sox injuries is a sense of exhaustion about the failure of their efforts to avoid these calamities. In their view, they feel they've done all they can, and the opportunities to play together have bled away all the same.
"For whatever reason, we can't play together the full lineup the whole time," Robert said last Friday through an interpreter. "You prepare yourself to be in good condition, good shape to play everyday and you're doing everything right. Then when something like this happens, it's frustrating. You start second guessing why, try to find an explanation why if you're doing everything you're supposed to do to stay healthy and you can't, it's very frustrating. That's the worst part."
And as much as the White Sox are trying to transition away from a team that was dependent on Moncada, Jiménez being healthy and reaching their ceilings, and ideally less completely dependent upon Robert to compete, this 2024 team was very much counting on this group to keep them offensively afloat as they built out other organizational strengths. That's borne out in both the results, and the options available as the Sox scramble reinforcements.
As Jim Margalus reminded Wednesday morning, it was telling that infielder Lenyn Sosa wound up being the replacement for Jiménez; a bat without peer nor facsimile in the White Sox upper minor depth. And now Colás is the replacement for Moncada, as the Sox try to band together their most dangerous available bats, even as their ability to allocate them in defensive skill positions is diminishing.
Moncada's absence forces the Sox to roll out at least three of Nicky Lopez, Braden Shewmake, Paul DeJong and Lenyn Sosa per game, which would make it really convenient if the last's third big league promotion wound up being the time his offensive production translated to the majors, since the others offer less potential to surprise. Robert's absence installs Dominic Fletcher as the regular center fielder just as his bat is appearing to thaw, and gives the Sox a corner outfield spot and the DH role in which to wedge bats.
Kevin Pillar and the switch-hitting Robbie Grossman are lined up to face left-handed starters, which worked out well enough on Tuesday at least. But facing right-handers will force the Sox to pick their priorities amid Pedro Grifol tabbing Grossman as a preferred option for batting leadoff, Gavin Sheets' hot start, and developing Oscar Colás.
Colas both would require the most patience after just two weeks at Triple-A, but is the most worthy long-term project when the immediate perils of this miserable start are weighed against where the Sox would like to be by the end of the year. Moncada, Jiménez and Robert were supposed to ease that transition, but now are serving to force the Sox to pick a lane. Colás was not in the starting lineup on Wednesday, but this season figures to be long. And without Moncada, there will be plenty of time to search out for a new offensive core.
