Pregame notes: Miguel Vargas must defend his Player of the Week crown

The White Sox rolled out a lot of new art on the 100-level concourse commemorating Pope Leo XIV's fanhood, but there's a honor that they can actually claim some responsibility for to focus on instead.

"I had a pretty decent week," said Miguel Vargas.

For hitting .417/.423/1.000 with four home runs, nine RBI and five runs scored in six games, Vargas was named American League player of the week. If you can believe it, the Sox didn't have anyone win player of the week in the 2024 season, so Vargas is the first member of the club to win the award since Luis Robert Jr. in June of 2023.

"After what I've been through the last year and this year early, to accomplish this type of thing makes me very proud and to trust to keep going," Vargas said. " I think it can be better for sure. The sky is the limit for me and I want to reach it the most that I can and just enjoy the ride."

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Brooks Baldwin was optioned and Austin Slater has been activated, roughly five weeks after the latter was initially diagnosed with a meniscus tear after a pregame stretching session went wrong.

"When I initially hurt it, I was like, 'Oh, that's my season.'" Slater said. "It had been bothering me for a little while, and I went for a stretch in pregame and heard a pop, felt a pop. Maybe like five to 10 minutes later I felt fine, and then I tried to run again and it didn't feel great. So imaging showed I had a slight tear."

Slater went 5-for-13 with four walks and a double in four rehab games, so he painted the picture of someone ready, even if he's not fully free of discomfort.

"It's gonna be something that I'm going to continue to deal with for a little bit, but hopefully it won't really impede my game much at all," Slater said. "At least from the last week of rebab, I think it's gonna be more of a mental hurdle than a physical hurdle of trusting my body that I can make certain moves and do what I've done before. There's still a little bit of a strength component to it that I have to get back. But I feel pretty close."

Baldwin was struggling defensively in the outfield and hitting .170/.231/.213 in May, so a reset was in order even allowing for the difficulty of his super-utility assignment. Will Venable said Baldwin will continue to be a super-utility type in Triple-A, but with possibly more time in center field and on the infield.

Mike Tauchman was in the White Sox clubhouse on Monday, but Venable said he's headed back out to Charlotte this week for more rehab work as he tries to return from a Grade 2 hamstring strain.

"He'll go and play back-to-back days in Charlotte," Venable said. "And then we'll re-evaluate where he's at, but anticipating that he would be ready to go with just a couple more games there in Charlotte."

Andrew Benintendi is officially beginning a rehab assignment on Tuesday.

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--The White Sox installed a graphic of Pope Leo XIV at section 140, where he attended games alongside the Schmit family, who have been season ticket holders since the mid-1970s.

--Robert Murray of FanSided reports what Josh also heard on Saturday, that the White Sox are working on a deal with veteran free-agent starter Adrian Houser. With Bryse Wilson struggling and starter depth in the farm system decimated by injury and under-performance, this is the sort of move discussed on the podcast.

--Chase Meidroth is batting .284/.351/.373 out of the leadoff spot. He insists the spot in the lineup has nothing to do with anything.

"Just trying to put the bat on the ball and get to first base," Meidroth said. "I’d do the same thing 1-9, it doesn’t matter where I hit. Wherever the coach has me I’ll go do that. Same approach."

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