Pregame notes: Fourth outfielder shuffle

There are a lot of balls in the air on Guaranteed Rate Field on Wednesday, and not just because Garrett Crochet is more of a fly ball pitcher.

Dominic Fletcher was recalled, which was notable because in the distant world of a month ago, he was still the team’s primary right fielder. But Pedro Grifol’s pregame media session made it sound like the 26-year-old who was acquired at not-insignificant cost, is sliding into the reserve outfielder role that Rafael Ortega was just ousted from, and not necessarily for a long time.

“He brings solid defense at all three outfield positions,” Grifol said of Fletcher. “He throws the ball well from out there. He gives us some help in center field too if we move [Tommy] Pham to the corners. He did the things that we asked him to do down there and we'll see how long he stays up here."

For the heavy slate of left-handed opposing starters Grifol is anticipating on the coming road trip through New York and Toronto, the recently acquired Corey Julks sounds like a better fit. That the 28-year-old Julks was recently designated for assignment by the Astros, before the Sox swung a deal for him in exchange for complex league arm Luis Martínez, means he’s six days removed from his last encounter with live game action. 

Julks was 10-for-29 with two homers and three doubles against southpaws at Triple-A Sugar Land this year, even if his splits are more neutral across his career. Julks hit .245/.297/.352 in 93 games for the Astros last season, but hasn’t seen the majors since last September.

“Our front office did a good job of identifying a right-handed hitter that we could use at some point, especially with this string of lefties that we've got in the next couple of days, the next couple of series and there's a possibility that he's a part of us,” Grifol said. “Maybe, maybe not. We'll see where he is.”

–With how short Danny Mendick’s rehab assignment was scheduled to be, Grifol kind of showed his hand a little bit that there weren’t immediate plans to demote Bryan Ramos by saying they would see how he feels Friday in New York. 

“It's not so much how he feels today, which he feels OK,” Grifol said. “It's how he's going to feel Friday in New York. The reason he's not playing today is because we want to give him 48 hours to rest up and see how he is on Friday. Even Yesterday he was OK. It was just a little grab and we erred on the side of caution."

Ramos was taking batting practice in the cage Wednesday morning alongside continuing to receive treatment on his left quadricep, and congratulating new citizens at the naturalization ceremony the White Sox hosted on the field pregame. But Grifol also made Mendick’s return to the roster somewhat conditional on Ramos’ status. 

It’s not, as Braden Shewmake and Zach Remillard have minor league options remaining, but managers tend not to say on record that someone is getting demoted until they have to. Still, until Ramos takes the field again, the possibility of an IL stint lingers as the other path to take.

– Michael Soroka did not pretend to love his chat with Grifol about moving to the bullpen.

“It was a conversation,” Soroka said Wednesday morning. “He was honest. At the end of the day, that’s all you can really ask for in this game. Yeah, I mean, it’s not something that I thought was out of the question after a rough start.”

And he did not pretend it was a great injustice.

“This isn’t the try league,” Soroka said. “I don’t have too many opportunities to go out there and have a 6 ERA. It’s time to put up some numbers.”

And he sounded more pissed than defeated.

“It’s all there,” Soroka said of his stuff. “I knew it was there. It was there in spring training too. It’s just a matter of getting it and having it on a daily basis. Finding a way to get there out of the gate instead of waiting to get kicked in the teeth and find a way to get angry and pull it out.”

So in all, he nailed all the notes a pitcher should hit while talking about getting bumped from the starting rotation.

TV: NBC Sports Chicago

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