Pregame notes: Mike Tauchman returns

It wasn't monitored quite on the level of Derrick Rose's recovery from an ACL tear, but the end of Mike Tauchman's eight-game absence for a right hamstring strain did merit a scintillating graphic. WellNow Urgent Care can't claim they didn't get their sponsorship money's worth.

"Nobody has success when they’re out there trying to do too much," said Tauchman about returning to the leadoff spot. "So I’m gonna try to take quality at-bats and play good defense and run the bases well. Just try to do the things that I do, and not try to do too much."

There are more than a few downstream effects of Tauchman's arrival. Just like Rose and Nate Robinson never actually shared the floor together, Travis Jankowski was designated for assignment, opening up a 40-man spot the front office will inevitably need at some point, and keeping the level of lefty outfielders on the active roster static. Will Venable added that Brooks Baldwin's playing time in the outfield will likely lessen in proportion to Tauchman becoming a regular against right-handed starters, and Miguel Vargas shifts down from a leadoff spot where his patient approach felt more role appropriate than it might in others. That part might only be temporary.

"For today," Venable said of Tauchman's spot. "We are going to take this day by day and let guys get settled in. Let this kind of early stabilization happen for these guys, and then I think you will see some of these kind of spots in the lineup formalize a little bit."

⚙️⚙️⚙️

Tauchman's return also provided a reason to check in on Josh Rojas, who was initially described as a bit of a toss-up for Opening Day. Time has revealed Rojas' timeline for returning from a hairline fracture in his right big toe to be less about pain tolerance, and more about his full mobility not returning until the bone is healed.

"For him to be the athlete he wants to be and we want him to be, that thing has got to heal," Venable said. "He was at the point where being in cleats and moving side to side was still really bothering him. So, I think [he] moved to just doing his work in turfs [non-cleated baseball shoes] and found some positive results with that, and the bone is healing up nicely."

⚙️⚙️⚙️

The White Sox and certainly their coaching staff understand that they are outgunned on personnel, but Saturday was probably the game where Venable most openly acknowledged an unsatisfactory and mistake-ridden level of play, especially in the first few innings. It doesn't sound like any tables were flipped.

"Early in the game there was a lot of disappointing things," Venable said. "Being honest and evaluating our performance, obviously the score let us know that too. From the fourth inning on, we played good baseball. We still had some opportunities [and] we left some runs out there, but we made plays and it was a good game.

Part of this whole thing is going to be being honest with ourselves and the things we could have done better in the beginning of that game, and addressing those things head on, but also recognizing the positive things and yesterday was a great example of that."

⚙️⚙️⚙️

Reporting that Jerry Reinsdorf has no interest in selling the controlling stake of the White Sox as a bullet point item underneath a long feature interview with a convicted bookkeeper involved in the Shohei Ohtani-Ippei Mizuhara gambling scandal is why Bob Nightengale is America's baseball columnist.

Just like our beautiful game itself, the later innings of a Sunday column always contain a surprise just when you think you've figured out the narrative of the day.

First pitch: White Sox at Tigers

TV: CHSN+

Radio: ESPN 1000 AM

Lineups: