Pregame notes: Rehab assignments in the near and distant future

On the podcast Sunday night, Josh wondered how the White Sox will incorporate Mike Tauchman and Josh Rojas into a mix that currently involves a lot of young players getting regular time.

For half of that question, any reduction in action for Miguel Vargas and Lenyn Sosa seems like it's still far off, as Josh Rojas is not going to hit initial estimates for his return to play timeline from a hairline fracture in his right big toe.

"He's a tough guy," said Will Venable. "The pain tolerance is there, he just can't do the things that he wants to do on the field and he's hurt a little bit. So, we're going to be patient with it."

Tauchman (right hamstring strain) on the other hand, as well as left-hander Tyler Gilbert (right knee bursitis), are set to begin rehab assignments with Triple-A Charlotte on Tuesday when the Knights return to action. Venable estimated a handful of outings for Gilbert and a 3-4 day stay for Tauchman, which would allow the veteran outfielder to return for the weekend series in Detroit.

Other than Brooks Baldwin's forays into right field, Tauchman's return largely seems like it would only curb the usage of veteran left-handed depth pieces that few could have foreseen being in Chicago at the start of this month: Nick Maton and Travis Jankowski. Maton DH-ing twice and leading off once against a right-hander, or even Michael A. Taylor getting a start Monday against a right-handed starter for a game Venable feels will be low scoring and defense-heavy, all read as temporary adaptations to Tauchman's absence.

For at least this week, the Knights will have all the left-handed outfielders they can handle, since Dominic Fletcher cleared waivers and was outrighted to Charlotte.

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Probable starters for the Tigers series haven't been set yet, but the White Sox are in a stretch of at least five straight games against right-handed starting pitchers, which has the likes of Korey Lee and Austin Slater on the lighter side of the playing time mix in the extremely early going.

 "We have to give consideration to that, and we don't want to have these real long layoffs for these guys," said Venable, who pointed out that he's sensitive to the issue as a former platoon player himself. "Luckily, I was on the side of the platoon where I got more playing time, but certainly there's stretches where you can have some time off."

Venable said bench players taking at-bats against the Trajekt machine is a critical means of keeping them active during off days, but a long stretch of right-handed starters in a row could see the Sox deviate some from strict platooning. But with the roster they have, mixing and matching for the situation is one of Venable's central in-game tasks for this season.

"We have these guys that have different capabilities and skill sets, and we want to utilize everybody that we have," Venable said. "We also are not a group that I think you're gonna see slug a bunch of three-run homers, although it was nice on day one. We're gonna have to find different ways on different nights to score runs. and using our bench and maximizing everybody's capability is gonna be part of that."

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Venable said that when he was playing for the Padres under Bud Black, there was a policy that any player who homered was in the lineup for the next day. As Maton can obviously attest, personnel usage will rely on a few more inputs than that under Venable.

At least at present, the conditions at home have the Sox leaning away from banking on power playing at Rate Field.

"We're seeing the way the ball's carrying in the early going and what that does for us and how we can be aggressive pitching-wise and how we can be aggressive defensively," Venable said. "I think it's something that is an advantage for us and seeing it every day and knowing we can be aggressive and play our infield or our outfielders shallow in spots in the game."

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