Pregame notes: Reinforcements en route, maybe, eventually

Injury recovery timelines suggest that the White Sox are close to the lineup they envisioned back in February. But since two of the mainstays of that original plan--Luis Robert Jr. and Andrew Vaughn--are hitting so poorly that days off seem like welcome considerations, maybe that's not the secret to happiness either.

"He's got some stuff to work through," Will Venable said of Vaughn, while clarifying that his day off is more due to workload. "Clearly, his performance is not where he wants it to be for him, certainly not for us. And we’ll continue to work through just getting good swings off and putting good at-bats together. Just got to do it and sustain it. He's not far off."

As a younger player, Luis Robert Jr.'s plate approach was rarely criticized for being too cerebral. But now that he's missing the verve that defined his early career success, despite what would seem to be gains in plate discipline, that is what Venable says he's seeing from him now.

"He's clearly got a mentality out in the outfield and on the bases that is fearless and aggressive," Venable said. "Just trying to maybe find that at the plate a little bit; where he just looks a little too thoughtful up there, a little too safe. He's going to work through it, get to a spot where he can just be athletic and let it go."

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Andrew Benintendi hasn't played a game in two weeks due to his calf strain, and the White Sox are going to send him out on a rehab assignment after this weekend rather than straight activate him from the injured list.

Fellow veteran outfielders Mike Tauchman and Austin Slater have both been rehabbing at Triple-A Charlotte this week, and while Tauchman has seen more action than Slater, he's 2-for-23 with nine strikeouts during his assignment. Rehab results don't mean much, but such an extreme line would suggest he's still finding his timing.

"You want to have your timing," Venable said. "It's not necessarily results, but for them, they know what it looks like and what it feels like when they're ready to go. I think that if Tauch thought that at this point that he was locked in and ready, that he would let us know. But I think maybe still working through some stuff, and probably has come through in some of the results of how he's feeling. So we'll give him some time to get healthy and get right and when he's ready, he'll come back up."

That said, neither Tauchman nor Slater are in the Charlotte Knights lineup on Sunday, setting them up to return to the White Sox on Monday. However, Korey Lee is playing for the Knights this afternoon.

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As a result of all this still-present roster turmoil, Joshua Palacios is batting third as the White Sox try to avoid a sweep.

"Objectively he always pops in our top four or five against right-handed [pitchers], so he's continued to take good at-bats, hits the ball hard," Venable said. "How we have it structured, it made sense."

First pitch: White Sox at Cubs

TV: CHSN, Marquee (Cubs)

Radio: ESPN 1000 AM, 670 AM The Score (Cubs), WRTO 1200 AM (Spanish)

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