Pregame notes: The gang’s not all here anymore

Andrew Vaughn's surprising demotion kind of stole a lot of the thunder from Tim Elko also being optioned. Likely because Elko represented a chance that the White Sox would be willing to move on from Vaughn for a compelling alternative, rather than being a generational offensive prospect himself.

In a mere 32 plate appearances, Elko hit .161/.188/.452 with three homers but also 10 strikeouts. His chase and contact rates really don't look that bad, but there were enough standalone moments of looking fooled by major league breaking balls for him to be tasked with working on it back in Charlotte.

"I do think that Tim Elko has a major league career in front of him," Getz said. "There are some areas of his game that can improve offensively. Tighten up the strike zone, there was some chase. But this opportunity for him to get up here, he can get a taste for what the big leagues is about, see some of the arms that he did."

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Andrew Benintendi and Mike Tauchman are both back from the injured list, and boy do they have different things to say about it. Tauchman spoke like someone still grappling with losing two months of the season to a recurring hamstring injury unlike anything he's dealt with in his career.

"It's been incredibly frustrating," Tauchman said. "You put a lot of time, put a lot of effort, put a lot of sacrifice into preparing yourself for a season, and it's something I take a lot of pride in. So not being available, it was really difficult. Then you think you're kind of over the hump and then suffer a setback, and kind of have to start all over again from square one. When that happens, you kind of lose the luxury of being aggressive, and that's frustrating too because all I want to do is be out there."

Where as Benintendi can't figure out for the life of him why he was in Charlotte at all.

"I haven't felt my calf one time in the past week," said Benintendi, who seems like he expected to be cleared after the series in Cincinnati. "I felt ready to go before [the rehab assignment. "I think I DH'd and played seven innings in the outfield. There's boxes that in my mind I was already checking that other people needed to see, so I went down there for two games."

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It turns out first round pick Hagen Smith throwing two innings in his last start (May 10) before being pulled out of the Double-A Birmingham rotation and set aside for "biomechanics work" wasn't quite as precautionary as it seemed. And having typed that whole progression out at once, it seems obvious now that it wasn't.

"His last outing, his velocity was fluctuating a little bit," Getz said. "He did have some soreness in his arm, in his elbow. We did MRI it, and there was nothing of concern at all. We compared it to where it was when we signed him. But he was feeling something, and it was showing in his velocity. We think it's related to his mechanics. We love the uptempo part of his delivery, but he's a guy that, on occasion, can rush out and forward. And he needs to stay back, he needs to stay over the rubber. That'll allow him to pound the strike zone more, less misses and put guys away. We're tackling that right now. We're thinking that's going to bode well for his overall health and production moving forward."

Smith won't even return to playing catch for another few days, so his return to action will come "when it feels right" both from his physical response and after the White Sox feel good about his mechanics.

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Will Venable said that Miguel Vargas will be the regular first baseman against right-handed starters going forward, moving back to third against lefties.

That's mostly related to the left-handed Josh Rojas taking his opportunities at third against right-handed starters and sitting against lefties. When Vargas is back at third and Lenyn Sosa is manning first against lefties, that might be the confluence of circumstances that leads to--drumroll--Vinny Capra actually taking an at-bat in a White Sox uniform.

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If Friday's Reggaeton Night at the ballpark doesn't get Luis Robert Jr. to start hitting, I truly don't know where to turn.

First pitch: White Sox vs. Rangers

TV: CHSN

Radio: ESPN 1000 AM, WRTO 1200 AM

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