White Sox reinstate Liam Hendriks, Adam Engel from IL

(Photo by David Banks/USA TODAY Sports)

Liam Hendriks is back, just in time for the start of the big three-game series with the Minnesota Twins at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The White Sox activated Hendriks from his right flexor strain as part of a series of four roster moves. Adam Engel also rejoined the club after recovering from his hamstring strain, with Jimmy Lambert and Adam Haseley returning to Charlotte to make room.

Hendriks’ absence wasn’t acutely felt when it came to the situations for which Hendriks is saved. The White Sox only had four traditional save opportunities, and Kendall Graveman and Joe Kelly had a 100 percent success rate between them.

His injury had greater consequences in a trickle-down fashion, with guys like Reynaldo López (June 27), Davis Martin (June 21) and Bennett Sousa/Jimmy Lambert (June 11) failing with high-leverage trials in an attempt to bridge the gap to Graveman. With Hendriks back in action, Graveman and Kelly get bumped to earlier innings, which should make Tony La Russa’s late-inning calculus a little easier to navigate. Hendriks won’t be initially available on back-to-back days, but Kelly finally has the green light to pick up more of the workload.

It’d be nice if the White Sox didn’t need Hendriks immediately, or at least had the good kind of low-leverage outing to reintroduce himself to MLB hitters since he didn’t get any rehab action. The arm scare revealed that Hendriks has been pitching with a torn UCL since 2008, so perhaps the White Sox would rather save all his bullets for games that count.

As for Engel missed a minimal amount of time, as he last played in the June 22 game against Toronto. The injury caught him just has he started to get on a roll, hitting safely in four straight games. If he can pick up where he left off, he gives La Russa an Adam he’d actually want to write into a lineup card. Haseley didn’t play until this past weekend’s series with the Giants, twice appearing as a pinch runner/defensive replacement before getting a late-game pinch-hitting appearance during Sunday’s blowout win.

Next up on the reinstatement list is Eloy Jiménez, who is finding a groove in his second attempt at rehabbing his knee. He’s 4-for-11 with two homers and four walks over his last four games, which included a couple starts in left field. The White Sox could see him sooner rather than later, if you’re inclined to be optimistic about La Russa’s cryptic pregame remark.

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FishSox

Nice to see some new faces in the lineup tonight, like Leury Garcia.

#russametrics

Last edited 1 year ago by FishSox
Right Size Wrong Shape

He’s a big time player. He’s special.

soxygen

Nobody can ground weakly to the right side quite like Leury can!

mrridgman

Did you see his ABs yesterday? Special.

Joliet Orange Sox

Unrelated to anything here, I just did Saturday’s Tribune (LA Times) crossword because we had out of town guests over the weekend. 29 across was 5 letters and was clued as “Chase with a slide rule”. Easy for most of posters here but I expect it caused some consternation among solvers who don’t follow baseball pretty closely.

That’s pretty clever.

Nellie Fox

Not sure but harrison is playing better with good at bats, maybe Larussa wants to rest him for the stretch run?