Pregame notes: Garrett Crochet is still here

There's less reason to ask Garrett Crochet about being on the trade market for now, a fact which he said he's "fired up about."

"Probably since May there's been talk of guys going on the trade block, which is pretty early. We've been dealing with that for about three months now."

With the whole affair on the back burner for now, Crochet was more willing to speak openly about he and his representation's demands for a contract extension and to remain as a starter, in the event that he was traded to a new team that wanted him to pitch through the postseason. Pedro Grifol recently estimated Crochet's next start will be around 75 pitches and that he only figures to taper down the All-Star's workload from there, with bulk relievers backing him up at every turn through the rotation. With his present team already making such efforts to ration his increase from 25 professional innings last season, Crochet feels requesting guarantees in exchange for deviating from that plan is logical.

""I mean, somebody's got to," Crochet quipped at the suggestion that he and CAA were trying to safeguard his career. "Ultimately, whether a deal went through or not I don't think was dependent on that being said or not. I think any team would see the amount of innings I threw last year and find it reasonable. I think that it was ultimately the right call, and that's about it."

But there was plenty of blowback, where a clearly dismayed White Sox front office objected to how the demands became public right before the trade deadline, and the implication that Crochet wasn't willing to risk health to be part of a World Series chase was a common talking point.

"It may have come across as greedy to some, but I think those in the industry realized it's logical to have that line of thinking," Crochet said. "But that's kind of the nature of the game. As baseball players, we have a little bit of notoriety, so if I wipe my ass the wrong way, I think someone would say something about it."

Crochet concurred with Chris Getz that their relationship is fine after the whole saga (though he said they haven't spoken much recently), and that he would be open to contract extension talks if the White Sox want to broach the matter this winter. But largely, Crochet sounded relieved to focus on baseball again, except for the part where he said this Sox season has been "about as tough as you can imagine."

This whole saga has been an interesting case study for future players weighing how to handle it when a new opportunity is mixed with increased injury risk. But they might want to wait on asking Crochet for advice, since his main takeaways from this episode currently take the form of quips.

"Maybe I need to throw away my phone next time."

Between losing 16 games in a row, possibly helming the worst major league season of all-time and never receiving any vote of confidence--even to finish out the current season--from the front office, there's plenty of reason to start reflecting on Pedro Grifol's managerial tenure. In a stray comment about what sort of advice he's receiving from friends across the game, he seemed to lament when he castigated his team as "fucking flat" in late May.

"I’ve had one situation this year where I got kind of out of character, and you guys will probably never ever see that again," Grifol said Wednesday. "This is who I am. Doesn’t mean I don’t have any fire inside of me, because I do. But I understand the business, I understand the game, I understand development, and I’m going to come out here and give it my best every single day and I’m going to do my very best to flush the day before and prepare for today."

Yoán Moncada was medically cleared to start ramping up baseball activities again, but at best that just puts him at the beginning of a long rehab process. The speed of that process, which the Sox have signaled they expected and wanted to go faster at multiple junctures, appears to be up to Moncada.

"You never want a player to get on the field without him being convicted that he’s ready to play," Grifol said. "Once you push a player out there and he doesn’t feel in his heart that he can do it, you’re probably asking for trouble. So it’s got to be both parties, it’s got to be us feeling good that he’s ready to go out there because he knows his body, what he's feeling, and we don’t. it’s communication but it’s on the player to say I’m ready to go. Until then we have to take his word and our communication with him and see what happens."

With an off day Thursday, Luis Robert Jr. is essentially getting two days off by sitting out Wednesday's series finale. Grifol said he's "banged up a little bit," but said that he doesn't have a specific injury, just a heavy workload from playing center and returning to frequently stealing bases.

Grifol said Tanner Banks, part of the White Sox organization since being drafted in 2014, was "emotional" about being traded.

"He really loved playing here."

First pitch: White Sox vs. Royals

TV: NBCSCH

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