Pregame notes: Jonathan Cannon returns to rotation, Luis Robert Jr. returns to IL

After giving the Toledo Mud Hens the absolute business in his lone rehab start, Jonathan Cannon has been activated to face Justin Verlander on Sunday, as we see whether a 24-year-old or a 42-year-old has a better functioning lower back.

Cannon should be limited to around 80 pitches.

"That will be up to the coaching staff," Cannon said. "But I feel good to go and feel like I could probably go out and throw 100 pitches and be fine. But that’s obviously not the responsible thing to do. We’ll play it by ear and see how we are feeling."

While he battled some knee soreness earlier in the year that affected his delivery, Cannon has been notably avoidant of arm injuries thus far in his pro career, so it's clear the injury has been a bit of blow to his pride. Albeit not quite as much as his last three starts since tweaking his back in Cincinnati (13.2 IP, 13 ER) were a blow to his season ERA. Most stories of how an underlying injury clearly hampered a player's performance are preceded by two or three untold tales of successfully gritting through a different physical issue, which serves to set the trap for later.

"Being a starter pitcher, one of the most valuable things you can be is available and throwing every fifth day," Cannon said. "This was a minor hiccup. I’ve been good in my pro career about taking care of my body and make every start. Things come up, things you don’t want to come up. But we moved past this as fast as possible. I’ve progressed a lot faster than some of the doctors or even the trainers maybe thought and we were a little ahead of schedule. I feel like we are in a really good spot going into the rest of the year. Just looking to go out and make every start."

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With Cannon back in the fold, Davis Martin has one more bullpen session in the coming days before the Sox will send him out for a rehab assignment as well. Pitching coach Ethan Katz said Martin might need one or two rehab outings, after which he'll be ready to return from a forearm strain that he and the Sox both insist he could have pitched through, if being one of the best starters on the 2025 necessitated such a thing.

Obviously Adrian Houser and Aaron Civale both could be with other teams a month from now, but the Sox could briefly be faced with six healthy starters, not including Mike Vasil. Katz has no love for six-man rotations, so it could get a little weird for a week or two.

"The Dodgers can do it because [Shohei] Ohtani doesn't count against their pitchers," Katz said of six-man rotations, clearly demanding that Chris Getz provide him with two-way players. "But we can't really pitch a man short in the bullpen. It makes it really tough. So I don't know. We'll cross that bridge when we get there."

Both because he's been successful and he threw 134 innings last season, the Sox have been eyeing Mike Vasil as someone who could move into the rotation after the trade deadline without much workload concern. But he'll move back to a swingman role in light of Cannon returning.

"You could see him starting a lot more games," Katz said. "But definitely right now, the role he's kind of doing of spot start, to an opener, to giving us a lot of innings. We really like that role. As well as he's pitched well enough in leverage situations at times too. It kind of just depends on what the need is and making sure we get him enough rest. But he's been able to carry a lot of bulk innings and I definitely see that continuing."

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While Mike Tauchman (groin, hamstring) is returning to the outfield on Sunday despite some physical limitations, the White Sox were already wavering on Luis Robert Jr.'s status during their pregame media session. And just 50 minutes before first pitch, they just straight up placed Robert on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to June 26) with a left hamstring strain.

Normally this is massive and crushing news for the White Sox, and it certainly doesn't help their plans to get literally anything of value for him in a trade, but Robert has a .584 OPS this season and Michael A. Taylor has been straight-up outplaying him.

Also, this almost certainly results in the return of Brooks Baldwin.

Wikelman González was optioned to make room for Cannon. He will surely return later this year, so merely use this as an excuse to read an article about him.

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Apparently the White Sox put Jake Palisch on waivers, since he cleared them and will remain at Double-A Birmingham. Palisch made his big league debut last week in Toronto.

The Sox now have an open 40-man spot, so be on the lookout for anyone the Brewers have recently purged from their roster.

First pitch: White Sox vs. Giants

TV: CHSN

Radio: ESPN 1000 AM, WRTO 1200 AM (Spanish)

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