Pregame notes: Chase Meidroth returns

Chase Meidroth has played all of nine major league games and has yet to collect an extra-base hit, but the White Sox are 7-23 and have been getting a .306 OPS from their shortstops this year so far, so they're thrilled to have him back.

"I’ve been waiting for this day for 10 days, I’m excited," Meidroth said as he returns from right thumb inflammation. "Swung yesterday and it felt normal."

Meidroth said he's never dealt with this issue before and isn't anticipating having to manage it throughout the rest of the season, but he will be wearing a guard on his right thumb for the foreseeable future. He's been hitting on the Trajekt machine in Chicago to get his timing right for his return, which ideally will include a little bit more pop now that there is less pain in his swing.

"If there’s one thing that I’ve been on him about is just letting it loose in the heart of the plate more and being more aggressive at times," said Will Venable. "At the same time that’s just in his DNA to be a selective hitter. I don’t want to change who he is but I think in time that he’ll learn that he needs to be aggressive and get some good swings off early in the count on pitches over the heart."

Gage Workman was placed on the injured list with a right hip flexor strain. Venable relayed that Workman told training staff that he tweaked it during his first inning error Wednesday night, though he played several more innings afterward. For a team trying to carry an unusually high number of Rule 5 picks on their roster, IL stints can sometimes be less of a logistical headache than figuring out how and when to find playing time for all of them.

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Will Venable didn't flip any tables over in the White Sox clubhouse during their miserable month of April. The home clubhouse doesn't have an obvious candidate for which table to take out of commission, but moreover, that's not his style.

"The only times that we've gotten the group together after a game has been when we’ve had a milestone achieved by a rookie, or Benny with his 500th RBI whatever it might be," Venable said. "Joe Maddon never called a meeting. He said we’re gonna meet once in spring, once at the All-Star break and once at the end of the year. And so I’ve seen a bunch of different ways to go about it. I’m not necessarily a come in and flip the table kind of guy. Some of those conversations, I think happen privately. And then for the group, I just want to be uplifting for this group and create an environment where we’re excited to come to work every day."

Venable also said veteran players addressing issues themselves is something he sees happening "all the time" and is something he wants to allot the space to take place, rather than micromanaging. It needs to bear fruit eventually, given the current state of affairs.

"A month through, we look ourselves in the mirror and say, 'Hey, we have seven wins and that's not good enough.'" Venable said. "That's the bottom line. For us, regardless of the results, we're going to focus on the things we believe are going to help contribute to wins."

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Venable mostly deferred to Chris Getz and the front office in response to a round of questions about Tim Elko. But since that conversation inevitably drifted to Andrew Vaughn (.160/.203/.270), he addressed that more directly.

"He's hit some balls hard that haven't gone his way," Venable said. "He's also missed some pitches, and I think he'd be open about talking about that and honest about the fact that he's just gotta cover some pitches and move some balls forward. For us, it's just supporting him to do that, helping him recognize any adjustments that he needs to make and just continue to put him in positions to go out and do his thing."

Luis Robert Jr. is in a similar boat, largely feeling good about his approach and wondering aloud why he's not crushing mistakes like he should.

"The pitchers have been doing a very good job attacking the strike zone, putting their pitches on the edges of the strike zone," Robert said via interpreter. "They are locating the pitches. I’ve been missing their mistakes too. That’s something I’m working on because you can’t miss their mistakes, right? Especially not at this level. That’s when you have to make them pay."

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