Pregame Notes: Short memories and a long injured list for White Sox

It’s remarkable that the White Sox can tout their clubhouse as cohesive considering that the last time the franchise lost 11 games in a row, it was before the Boston Red Sox were integrated. And it’s especially remarkable since their clubhouse composition is ever-changing.

Even with Luis Robert Jr. returning after two months on the shelf, the Sox have 13 players on the injured list, and Duke Ellis will be their 45th player to see major league action this year. Zach Remillard was designated for assignment by this team for the third time this calendar year on Tuesday, and some part of me would be absolutely stunned to not see him in a White Sox uniform again.

“We really have a short-term memory when it comes to losing games,” said Pedro Grifol. “They bleed it after the game, but it just seems like the very next day they've got some kind of good energy in here.”

-- That's actually not the spirit I try to bring to the pregame notes, because if I had a short memory I would forget I reported that Grifol assured that Steven Wilson was set to be activated once he was eligible (he's beginning a rehab assignment in Triple-A instead), or that I wrote Andrew Vaughn looked headed for the injured list, and instead he's batting second Tuesday night.

To be fair, it doesn't seem like Vaughn's sprained left ring finger dramatically improved. The Sox positional depth has been carved to the bone, and Vaughn was put in a position where he could stump to grit his way through discomfort.

"The good thing is that there was some reassurance there that it can't get worse, it's just going to be pain tolerance," Grifol said. "I got a call from him yesterday telling me that 'Skip I want to play, and I want to help the club.' When a player calls you and tells you that he wants to do that and he's a big part of this thing, you go with it."

While the rationale from Vaughn is clear enough--he's as much of a case of grit and determination as a former third overall pick can be--a pet theory that I have is while willingness to play through pain is admirable, the big cost of nagging injuries is simple ineffectiveness. It's hard enough to succeed at the highest level without physical limitations. Vaughn's desire to help should never questioned, whether his injury will allow him to will be tested.

-- Robert is back but when you miss two months with a hip flexor injury, everything is still a work in progress. The former All-Star said he's still in the process of getting trust back in his hip, but reasoned that he managed to do it after a worse injury in 2021, and should be able to do it again. He didn't wait for the Spanish translation for a question about his timing after the lay off, and reasoned that it will get better as he plays. He and Grifol both acknowledged he will get days off as the Sox ramp him back up to everyday usage, with some DH work mixed in.

And of course, as Robert is doing all this, there's the possibility that the White Sox will decide that three additional years of team control won't quite be enough to turn down offers for the centerfielder on the trade market.

"I would like to stay with this organization," Robert said via interpreter. "This organization, they gave me the opportunity to play in the majors and make my dream come true. But if they decide otherwise, I will go to do my best somewhere else.”

-- A lot of people, Tommy Pham included, were frustrated by his fateful slide in the eighth inning on Sunday before it was known that it caused a sprained left ankle that will put the outfielder on the IL for at least 10 days. Grifol said the first few days of treatment have provided hope that it won't require much more time than that. But frankly, the injury and the absence still aren't the most attention-grabbing elements of that play.

 "There’s nothing like a player with an edge that holds everybody accountable, including staff or whoever," Grifol said of Pham. "He's an emotional player, we all are. We all want the same thing, which is to win a baseball game. Eddie [Rodríguez] has his reasons why he sent him, and when I talked to Eddie about it, they were valid reasons. We haven't been scoring that much, we wanted to be aggressive, we thought we could run on Yelich. There's a lot to it. I understand Tommy's feelings. He got thrown out by three, four steps. I understand his side as well. We're past that now."

-- Dominic Fletcher has his left arm in a sling after banging into the center field wall at American Family Field to rob a home run on Sunday. He said he has a sprain of the AC joint in the shoulder.

"Two-to-three weeks-ish, it will probably be sore for up to six weeks," Fletcher said of his expected timeline for recovery. "I feel like it’s still early in the season. Obviously disappointed have to miss some time trying to get on the right track. So a little time to regroup and come back strong."

-- Between being at Double-A and serving as sort of fourth outfielder on a prospect-laden Barons roster, Duke Ellis was not in a position to see Fletcher leaving a major league game with an injury, and assume he was next in line.

In fact, when Birmingham manager Sergio Santos asked Ellis to meet him in his apartment, the 26-year-old's mind went to a darker place.

"To be honest, my first question after he told me I was getting called up was ‘So you are not releasing me?’" Ellis said. "It went from rock bottom to the most excitement I’ve had in I couldn’t tell you how long."

Ellis has a specific set of skills (non-murder edition) that make him more suited to slide into a bench role full of pinch-running chances and few at-bats, than say yanking Terrell Tatum out of the Birmingham leadoff spot. With Zach DeLoach and Oscar Colás both already serving as left-handed outfield bench bats on the roster, Ellis is unlikely to be called on to do more than run on the bases or run in the outfield, but he'll bring an edge (non-Pham edition) to that as well.

"This game is full of failures, and if you focus on the failures too much, I feel like that’s where the game speeds up," Ellis said. "No fear of getting thrown out. As a base stealer, I feel like no fear of getting picked off or getting thrown out. If you have any fear or doubt, then automatically you’ll get thrown out. Go get it with confidence and whatever happens, happens."

"Duke," is a nickname, as Ellis' given first name is the same as his father, Robert Ellis. The senior Ellis was the White Sox third round pick in 1990, and pitched for the 2001 World Series-winning Diamondbacks, where Rodríguez was a member of the coaching staff. Ellis also was teammates with hitting coach Marcus Thames, so his son should have a soft landing.

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