While Tommy Pham was waiting for the White Sox to arrive in Arizona before rejoining the team, his return to the 26-man roster wasn't the only item on the agenda.
The White Sox reinstated Pham from the injured list as one of four, not two roster moves.
In order to make room on the roster, the White Sox optioned Zach DeLoach to Triple-A Charlotte, meaning that Oscar Colás wins this round. But along with the outfield swap, the White Sox also added a fresh arm to the bullpen by purchasing the contract of journeyman righty Chad Kuhl to take the place of Jordan Leasure.
It's a pretty jarring turn of events for Leasure, who had a 2.18 ERA as a rock-solid setup man/occasional closer as recently as Memorial Day. But in the eight games since, the line is pretty ghastly: 8 IP 8 H, 8 R, 9 ER, 9 BB, 9 IK, 2 HR, with the league hitting .267/.436/.500 against him. Kuhl doesn't figure to be a direct replacement for the role Leasure previously occupied, as he's started 11 of his 13 games with Charlotte and has struck out only 42 batters over 56 innings, but he has 143 games and 615 innings of MLB experience, so he knows his way around a big league mound.
"He’s done great," Pedro Grifol said of Leasure. "He is going to be great here for a long, long time, and [be] a big part of the future here. It’s just getting him in a more controlled environment for a little bit of time to where he’s not taking on that workload that you have to take here in the big leagues."
-- Grifol did not go into a ton of depth about Kuhl's role in the bullpen, other than acknowledging that he offers length and the ability to multiple innings. Kuhl said that he's lowered his arm slot with the White Sox and returned to a sort of sinker-slider attack he feels is more natural to him. The last time Kuhl was on a major league mound his wife was undergoing treatment for breast cancer, and now she's in full remission and will be in attendance in Arizona, so his spirits are high outside of on-field results.
"We’re just grateful and can’t express the gratitude enough," Kuhl said. "I got DFA’d [last year] after a horrible outing in San Diego. Go home and my wife’s battling breast cancer. You just never have that assurance you’re ever going to step on a big league mound again. Scary for us, scary for our family. But man, just grateful to be here, grateful for my wife’s health and just ready to play ball."
--Corey Julks and Oscar Colás sound like they will be bench bats for the time being, but certainly will have their roster spots challenged when Eloy Jiménez returns. Grifol said Jiménez's timeline will be determined more by his ability to handle running than his timing at the plate. From watching him Thursday, Jiménez was not trying to ramp it up to max effort yet.
--Being at the complex this weekend revealed that Corey Knebel is up to throwing live batting practice. Davis Martin is pitching for the ACL White Sox Friday night in a rehab outing.
First Pitch: White Sox at Diamondbacks
TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Lineups:
| White Sox | Diamondbacks | |
|---|---|---|
| Tommy Pham, RF | 1 | Corbin Carroll, CF |
| Gavin Sheets, DH | 2 | Ketel Marte, 2B |
| Luis Robert Jr., CF | 3 | Joc Pederson, DH |
| Andrew Vaughn, 1B | 4 | Christian Walker, 1B |
| Andrew Benintendi, LF | 5 | Lourdes Gurriel Jr., LF |
| Paul DeJong, SS | 6 | Randal Grichuk, RF |
| Nicky Lopez, 2B | 7 | Eugenio Suárez, 3B |
| Korey Lee, C | 8 | Tucker Barnhardt, C |
| Lenyn Sosa, 3B | 9 | Geraldo Perdomo, SS |
| Chris Flexen | SP | Ryne Nelson |
