Remember when the White Sox announced 11 roster moves in a single press release at the beginning of May, and nobody could recall a team conducting such an extensive overhaul in one fell swoop?
I had a similar response to seeing this Detroit Tigers medical update cross my Twitter feed:
Looking into whether this is a regular thing, I actually found an even longer list of minor-league injuries from last week. While the word count is unenviable, I'd welcome the thoroughness.
I'm trying to picture what a White Sox won
*Mike Clevinger: Right biceps soreness, will attempt to ramp up throwing by the end of the week.
*Garrett Crochet: Left shoulder inflammation, 15-day injured list is precautionary measure.
*Tim Anderson: He's not using his knee as an excuse, and also his shoulder is bothering him a little, but not that much.
*Romy González: His shoulder has been bothering him for a while.
*Jimmy Lambert: His ankle was bothering him for a while.
*Andrew Benintendi: Let's wait for national broadcasts to bring up his hand.
*Colson Montgomery: Poof! He's back!
*Lenyn Sosa: Returned from his strained oblique in the 2-3 week timetable we originally established. Kudos, us.
Minnesota Twins
The Twins got stomped by the Red Sox for the second straight night, sending them to their fifth loss in six games and a season-worst two games under .500 at 36-38. Making matters worse, they've allowed 40 runs over that stretch. Given how well they've pitched this year, they're allowed to hit a rough patch, but given how they've exceeded expectations to date in terms of run prevention, regression is a real concern.
Without encouraging run-prevention efforts on a nightly basis, there just aren't many bright spots. Byron Buxton physically can't play center field, and he says it's taking a toll on his offense.
Before Tuesday night’s game between the Twins and Boston Red Sox at Target Field, the designated hitter had not garnered a hit since being reinstated from the injured list last week. The slump would be easier for Buxton to stomach if he were able to make his presence felt in the outfield.
“That definitely takes your mind off of what you do at the plate,” he said Tuesday. “If I was to strike out, I went on defense, and I was like, ‘Ain’t nobody getting a hit.’ ”
That healthy distraction isn’t available at the moment, and despite constant clamoring from fans, it doesn’t seem as if it will be anytime soon.
Reliever Jorgé López went to the injured list for a mental health break, which the Twins have been considering for weeks:
Club personnel has seen warning signs appear from time to time, including López throwing his glove on the mound in disgust during one game and taking his frustrations out on a Gatorade cooler in another.
And here's Rocco Baldelli, without much to say.
Despite being 36-38, they still lead the AL Central by one game over the ...
Cleveland Guardians
The Guardians have already proceeded down one of the two most potent paths toward Cleveland optimism and fear, because Bo Naylor can't be any worse than Mike Zunino in terms of catching production.
The other avenue has closed up again for the time being. Triston McKenzie is back on the shelf with a UCL sprain that will take several weeks to assess.
“They said the joint seems stable, it’s just like a matter of patience,” McKenzie said. “They didn’t necessarily give me any specific grades or how big anything was in there. They said a partial strain, tear. Probably going to take a month to six weeks or so and then from there reassess and talk about procedures or how we move forward.”
A shoulder strain had kept McKenzie out of MLB action for the first two months of the season, but when he struck out 10 batters over five shutout innings against the Twins in his first start back, it looked like the Guardians were going to regain the services of another Cy Young-caliber arm.
But his next five innings against the Astros didn't go so well, and then current member of the White Sox organization Touki Toussaint had to step in with a spot start the next time McKenzie's turn rolled around.
Cleveland is good enough at generating in-season depth -- and Terry Francona is good enough at learning how to deploy it -- that you can't count out other solutions emerging, but the Guardians are a lot scarier when you already know who they are.
Kansas City Royals
The Royals couldn't have been expected to compete in a division where the White Sox, Twins and Guardians all had decent cases for 85 wins, but in an AL Central where the leader is two games under .500, you'd probably expect them to be in a four-team slurry not that far off the pace.
Instead, they have to settle for the bleakest of bright spots, like beating Oakland to 20 wins. They needed every bit of a shutout in order to secure it with a 1-0 victory over the Tigers on Tuesday, but a win's a win, and they're eating humble pi during a 3-14 June.
Conversely, Royals fans can embrace the bleakest of streaks, which is Kansas City's inability to win a game Jordan Lyles starts.
They've twice lost Lyles starts in which they've scored 10 runs, and they just lost a game where Lyles departed with a 4-1 lead in the seventh inning to set an obscure record for futility.
Lyles is 0-11 on the season, and considering he's still under contract for another $8.5 million in 2024, there's a chance he could reach some Mike Maroth-level depths. If you're drawing parallels to the 119-loss Tigers of 2003, you must be doing close to nothing right.
