Pregame notes: Jonathan Cannon’s maturation process is tonight’s reason to watch

Jonathan Cannon's brainy approach to the game, his comfort with biomechanical and pitch shape concepts makes it easier when it's time to make some mid-season adjustments.

It makes it a little less easy when there are no adjustments to be made.

"He's a big tinkerer," said pitching coach Ethan Katz. "I've got to stay on my toes and make sure he doesn't tinker too much and go down some bad paths. But for the most part it does make [coaching him] a lot easier. He has aptitude to be able to make certain adjustments and see things that are going on and rectify that."

As Cannon walked four in six laborious innings of one-run ball in Miami, Katz saw his glove arm getting too high in his delivery, throwing off the alignment of his back shoulder and throwing elbow in his delivery, and creating unreliable movement on his changeup. Ironically, the relief outing where Cannon allowed four runs to the Pirates over six innings, and seemingly had poor defense to blame for a lot of it, looked better to Katz in terms of mechanics.

Looking at a biomechanical analysis of Cannon's delivery accelerated the process, and Katz and the Sox staff identified that the right-hander's weighted ball routine was getting him into some bad positions with his throwing motion.

"It really accelerates the process and we're able to see what's going on a little bit deeper," Katz said. "His elbow gets too low and that's where things go sideways. The elbow has to be aligned with the shoulder and he can't get above his head."

Superficially, Cannon has a sinker/sweeper driven attack for right-handed hitters and a four-seam/changeup approach for left-handers, but Katz wants the separation to be less binary for the 24-year-old to hit his ceiling. Those are the strengths of his arsenal to each side, but he thinks Cannon will get the best results by flashing just enough to make all hitters ready for a five-pitch arsenal.

"He can sink it, he can ride it, he can cut it, he can spin it, he can do a bunch of different things," Katz said. "He has to pitch up. He can't just look down, down, down, particularly to lefties."

Jordan Leasure's shoulder impingement popped up Friday during catch play, according to the man himself. He would not brook any suggestion that it played into allowing nine runs in 2 2/3 innings since being recalled just before the break.

"Those were normal. Those were just bad," Leasure said of the trio of outings.

"Normal" isn't the perfect assurance with Leasure, who hasn't always had his top velocity and certainly not his minor league whiff numbers throughout his rookie season.

"Dealing with some stuff all season long but have been able to manage it and work through," Leasure said. "Just normal stuff. You're never going to be 100 percent with what we do."

It's being treated as a minor issue at this stage. Leasure was placed on the 15-day injured list while Sammy Peralta was recalled, but his broader description of the injury is simply inflammation. He won't throw for a few days in hopes that the discomfort subsides. If not, that's when imaging will come in to play.

Dominic Leone hasn't pitched in two months, yet apparently is not only avoiding elbow surgery, but could be on a rehab assignment at Triple-A Charlotte as soon as the end of next week. Maybe by then Mike Clevinger's time with the Knights will be over. Clevinger's next rehab start in Triple-A will be Tuesday.

Clevinger was fairly sharp in his most recent rehab start (four innings of one-run ball) but it took place last Sunday and only saw him throw 51 pitches.

Colson Montgomery has two hits and homer Saturday with the Knights at press time, but Brooks Baldwin settling into a run of regular play at second base while the club's top positional prospect struggles with Triple-A was not the preseason expectation. Montgomery still operates under the expectation that a major league shot is a question of "not if, but when," but could that when be in 2025?

"I think it’s still TB," Grifol said. "Everyone wants him up here at some point. We just have to make sure we pick the right timing for that. Not for just our ballclub, but for him. We have to wait until this whole trade deadline kind of takes place and we’ll continue to discuss it. But yeah, I expect him to be here at some point unless something goes--our front office doesn’t see it’s the right time."

first pitch: White Sox at Royals

TV: NBCSCH.

John Schriffen and Steve Stone are off for this series. Len Kasper and Gordon Beckham will be on the call. My understanding is that Schriffen will return for the Rangers series whereas Stone has the entire road trip off.