Pregame notes: The three-catcher solution

Once again, the reality so many commenters have pushed for while I insisted it was implausible has come to pass, the White Sox called up Korey Lee to free up their usage of Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero.

If Friday night's lineup wasn't already indication, that appears to be the precise reason for the move, which also saw the team finally cut ties with the scuffling Josh Rojas.

"Adding Korey, it kind of frees us up and gives us some flexibility to do some of the things we want to do as far as getting both Edgar and Kyle in the lineup," Will Venable said. "More than anything for us, you want the young guys to have consistent at-bats. But for us, it makes our lineup better kind of on both ends. Excited to have both those guys in the lineup more often."

Venable clarified that this doesn't mean Teel or Quero will be DH-ing every single game going forward, but when they don't, it won't be because they're worried about running out of catchers. That said, Lee's major league role doesn't sound much less thankless than I feared.

"I kind of think of myself as a Swiss Army knife," Lee said. "I can run, I can hit, I can catch, maybe go in the outfield, I don't know. I come prepared every single day to win, and that's my job right now."

"One of the things we talked to Korey about was just being ready to be a little bit of a Swiss Army Knife, more in an emergency role," Venable said. "If we make a late move, to have him in the outfield or the infield, what that might look like. But 100 percent, keeping the focus really on catching. But just knowing that there’s a situation where he could be an emergency guy in other spots."

Lee has good speed for a catcher and is legitimately a plus baserunner due to his aggression and instincts, but opportunities to model his more rhythmic swing load (notoriously more difficult to maintain with infrequent playing time) could be spare. He's hit .255/.313/.405 at Triple-A Charlotte (81 wRC+) but was scuffling to a .184/.196/.224 line in August.

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Josh Rojas had started just eight of the White Sox's 30 games since the All-Star break, and neither of the two players with a worse mark on Baseball Reference than his -1.5 Wins Above Replacement are currently on a major league roster. Also the Sox have two guys who can cover shortstop, and neither of them are Rojas.

So the news that Rojas was designated for assignment on Friday, after being the biggest position player free-agent signing of the offseason, was long coming. And that it took this long reflects how much the Sox liked Rojas' clubhouse presence and his defensive awareness, even as it wasn't translating to defensive acumen.

"Not the performance he was looking for on the field but he made a huge impact and somebody we are going to miss," Venable said. "He still battled that foot injury when he did come back a little bit. Just never really got going for him."

Brooks Baldwin has hit .326/.392/.565 in 15 games in August and made some starts at third base. Venable said he will still be primarily an outfielder going forward, but is effectively the sixth infielder in the wake of Rojas' departure.

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The White Sox have 17 games in the next 17 days, beginning with this 10-game homestand they are beginning Friday night. But Venable says they will probably stick with a five-man rotation through at least the homestand, noting that Shane Smith is in a good position to make the rest of his starts through the season, even if some of them are limited to five innings. Having begun the year as a reliever, Sunday's scheduled starter Yoendrys Gómez is also not expected to have any innings limit issues.

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Dan Altavilla headed out to Triple-A Charlotte to begin a rehab assignment for his right lat strain.

First pitch: White Sox vs. Twins

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