Pregame Notes: Andrew Benintendi’s Achilles tendon has been his Achilles heel

MILWAUKEE -- Playing through pain is something baseball players view as normal, to a fault. A mindset of pushing themselves past their physical limits is something they often view as inseparable from the approach to the game that got them to the major leagues in the first place. 

Teammates and coaches, knowing a 162-game season is mostly undulating waves of guys playing through soreness, picking up the slack for counterparts who are even more sore or outright injured, feel a kinship and appreciation for players who are wired similarly.

And that preface is important to remember before a lot of details that might make you angry.

“It's probably been seven weeks,” Andrew Benintendi said of the left Achilles tendinitis that placed him on the injured list Sunday, with Oscar Colás recalled in his stead. “I've been able to play through it, get treatment, stuff like that. But it's gotten to a point where a move like this probably had to be made.

"The game two days ago, it was hurting pretty bad where just walking out to left and jogging was painful. Then yesterday, before the game even started I thought about telling Pedro [Grifol]. But I like to play through things. It's unfortunate. I hit a homer of course and get taken out so it's obviously not a great look. But it's probably the right move before it gets too serious."

Like most players, Benintendi is disinclined to attribute poor play to injuries. He was reticent during spring training to pin his poor 2023 power production on his ailing right wrist, even though he received a cortisone shot before the All-Star break. Similarly, he was not willing to blame his offensive woes this year on his sore left Achilles.

"This had no effect on my hitting or anything like that, just not swinging the bat well,” Benintendi said, before adding a quip. “I was hot in June, so hopefully we can get back to it."

“[Head trainer] James [Kruk] did a really good job of kind of identifying that something wasn’t right, and then at the end of it we have to make decisions for him because he’s never going to want to come out of a game,” said Grifol. “It probably affected him a little bit, but he’s not going to make an excuse that that’s the reason. And I don’t know how it affected him in the game. He’s never going to tell us. It could have very well been a big factor in his game, but he won’t tell us because he won’t make excuses. Which, I love that about him.”

Talking to him earlier this season, Benintendi identified “drift” as an issue in his lack of pull power. It’s when his weight transfers too early out of his back (left) leg to explode through the ball with any force. Would having a sore Achilles tendon in that leg not exacerbate that issue? Benintendi repeatedly made it clear that’s not when he felt pain, though he did acknowledge the ailment affected him defensively and on the basepaths.

"As far as swing, not much,” Benintendi said. “You take a swing and then that first step out of the box all that weight goes on that back Achilles. Felt it there and jumps in the outfield, it didn't feel great.”

Benintendi’s defensive metrics have plummeted in a White Sox uniform, with Statcast specifically citing a below-average first step burst undercutting his above-average reaction times. Between his offensive and defensive struggles, Benintendi has produced as much negative value as anyone in MLB--as players performing as badly as him typically see their playing time cut--and it turns out he was playing through a nagging injury the whole time. That’s the one-sentence summary, though the White Sox insist the nature of the people who play this sport makes the picture murkier.

“There’s some times I would pass by him and say, ‘How you feeling?’ [and he replied] ‘Great,’ and then [he’d] go out there and play,” Grifol said. “You say you can play, he plays. And if he performs, he performs. And if he doesn’t, he’s not going to blame it on something else. Which is a great makeup, a great character.”

– Let’s try to be more concise going forward. The White Sox have to decide before Tuesday’s Crosstown opener against the Cubs if Andrew Vaughn is going on the IL for a sprained left ring finger or not. It certainly sounds like they’re leaning toward a yes, which would make Vaughn an easy choice for the corresponding move for when Luis Robert Jr. is activated.

“He was a little better today, but not enough,” Grifol said. “At contact, he still had a little bit of a stinger. We’ll come in tomorrow and see where he’s at. At some point we’ve got to make a decision. We’re trying to hold off as much as we can because we need his bat. He’s a little better, but not exactly where we want him to be.”

– If Vaughn rips off his finger splint/cover/little protective whatchamacallit and plays, it would probably push the Sox to option Dominic Fletcher, who will have less center field utility with Robert back, or gulp, option Oscar Colás after a single game again.

Colás is in Sunday’s starting lineup, so he’s already slated to get more run than his last stint in the majors. But even if Gavin Sheets is playing more first base with Vaughn out, the first option for the White Sox outfield would be some arrangement of Robert, Tommy Pham and Corey Julks, whom Grifol acknowledged has forced his hand to play regularly with his hot start. Colás could do the same and force his way into the rotation given that the DH slot is open, but he’ll have to do it mighty quickly.

“Pedro and the coaches told me to work on controlling the strike zone and have a better recognition of the strike zone to have better at-bats,” Colás said through an interpreter. “I've been working a lot on [my anxiousness] and trying to control that. There's nothing else better than working every day and knowing what you need to do in order to get better in a specific area. I was doing that, and I think I am better now.”

– Grifol confirmed that reliever Steven Wilson is on track to return from the IL when he’s eligible, so that should be another roster move coming before the Cubs series.

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