Pregame notes: Jonathan Cannon to IL with lower back strain

Jonathan Cannon and Luis Robert Jr. are both missing their next two games.

For Cannon, he's beginning a 15-day injured list stint that has no timetable, with Will Venable saying there's not enough clarity yet after initial imaging to slap a recovery estimate on the process, nor to rule out a 15-day minimum stint.

The White Sox manager did defend the process that led to the right-hander making two ill-fated outings since his back tightness initially flared up.

"We have a process for evaluating a player, trust what he tells us," Venable said. "He's out there throwing bullpens and [it's] kind of a responsible ramp-up to the decision point in which we decided that he was good to throw. So, [feel] fine about our process, again also trusting the player that he was in a good spot. Jonathan is a competitor and wants to pitch and believed that he was in a good spot, and he just didn't come out of this last one feeling very good."

The Sox are already not on their regular rotation, with Caleb Freeman called up to be part of a bullpen day scheduled for Wednesday, so Venable is putting off declaring a replacement for Cannon until after this series. Bryse Wilson is the most capable option in terms of physical stamina, but has already been bounced from the rotation for ineffectiveness this year and just got done wearing it for five grisly innings on Monday.

"Obviously he threw a lot yesterday, so he'll be down for a couple days," Venable said. "We'll see what tomorrow looks like, knowing that we'll be leaning on some bulk bullpen guys also. So yeah, just kind of gotta take it day by day for now."

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Where as Cannon has been one of the most effective starters on the team at his best, Robert is sitting Tuesday and Wednesday essentially because he's hitting .208/.276/.341 over the last calendar year, and even that split would represent an upgrade over his more recent work. Put it another way: Martín Maldonado has a .472 OPS for the Padres this season. Robert has a .472 OPS against right-handed pitching this season.

He's a replacement-level player while leading the league in stolen bases and playing good center field defense, so intervention efforts should only get more aggressive from here.

"He’s continued to work really hard on making adjustments to get right," Venable said. "As he continues to do that, similar to [Miguel] Vargas earlier in the year, where he’s taking on some real adjustments, just not having him do that with also dealing with the results of the game. So I just think that today and tomorrow we'll give Luis the day off and not be in the starting lineup. He'll be available, but not in the starting lineup, just to give them an opportunity to really dial in some of these adjustments without just feeling the pressure of having to go out there and perform. So he's in a good spot physically. And just want to give him a couple days here to lock in some of these adjustments."

Since an invocation of Vargas raises hopes of a tangible mechanical change that radically alters his offensive profile, Venable shot down those hopes, indication he didn't expect Robert's adjustments to be so drastic.

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The Tigers are using Beau Brieske as an opener for this game.

TV: CHSN

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