MINNEAPOLIS -- Mike Clevinger's slow creep toward Chicago will take another step Thursday night as he makes his debut with Triple-A Charlotte. Pedro Grifol said Clevinger's outing should have a general range of four innings, 60 pitches. The Sox manager said a 10-15 pitch increase for every following outing should be expected, making five innings, 75 pitches the goal for his next follow-up. From there, Clevinger would be in line to return to the majors.
"If we do that, then you know that when he comes here, there's going to be some limitations," Grifol said.
Grifol would probably make ample mention of Andrew Benintendi's 2021 Gold Glove even if he hadn't been in Kansas City to witness it. Statcast defensive metrics were no great fan of Benintendi's range even back then, but now that they rate him as one of the poorest full-time outfield defenders in the league out of the gate in 2024, Grifol should be qualified to compare it to some of his left fielder's better days.
"At times it looks really good," Grifol said. "At times it doesn't. It's been a little inconsistent metrically. It looks like he's been playing a little bit deeper than he's normally used to. We've talked about it. We're going to make the proper adjustments and he knows. He's been around. He's won a Gold Glove before so he knows what he's got to do to get to where we need him to get to. He's working on it."
Benintendi's lack of "burst" in his outfield jumps is one of his weakest components statistically, with Statcast rating him 84th among 106 qualified players.
Korey Lee is slated to behind the plate for a Thursday 12:10 p.m. first pitch, after also starting Wednesday night, putting him behind the plate for the third time in this four-game series. Grifol talked up Martín Maldonado's pitch calling while talking about the decision (Erick Fedde's Tuesday start with him was definitely the best execution of a game plan in this series), and held off on making proclamations on Lee taking up a larger share of the catching workload.
But Maldonado is 2-for-42 on the season at the plate and Lee launched his second homer of the season Wednesday night, and searching for any sort of offensive injection is the daily project of White Sox lineups.
"I want to get him in there a little bit more consistently," Grifol said of Lee. "At the same time I want to make sure he's developing at the right pace and not trying to do too much too soon. Drew Butera does a really good job with these guys. Maldonado is excellent not just for our pitchers but he's excellent for Korey too. I think all of it is really important for Korey's development and at the same time we've got to put ourselves in a position to win games."
Hitting coach Marcus Thames said ground pressure is critical for Paul DeJong, who has been popping up out of his legs during this hitless road trip, after five hits during last Wednesday's doubleheader in Chicago.
"When he’s not as grounded, he comes up out of there," Thames said. "That’s why he chased that ball up out of the zone. We had a series against Kansas City where he was really grounded and they were trying to shoot him with heaters and he was on time because he was more grounded."
Per Statcast, DeJong has the fourth-lowest in-zone contact rate among players who have more than 50 plate appearances this season, so chasing out of the zone excessively is not really a failing his offensive profile can support.
First Pitch
TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Lineups:
| White Sox | Twins | |
|---|---|---|
| Nicky Lopez, 2B | 1 | Alex Kiriloff, LF |
| Danny Mendick, 3B | 2 | Edouard Julien, 2B |
| Gavin Sheets, RF | 3 | Ryan Jeffers, C |
| Eloy Jiménez, DH | 4 | Trevor Larnach, DH |
| Robbie Grossman, LF | 5 | Max Kepler, RF |
| Andrew Vaughn, 1B | 6 | Willi Castro, SS |
| Kevin Pillar, CF | 7 | Carlos Santana, 1B |
| Paul DeJong, SS | 8 | José Miranda, 3B |
| Korey Lee, C | 9 | Austin Martin, CF |
| Michael Soroka | SP | Simeon Woods Richardson |
