Pregame notes: Sean Burke and Miguel Vargas return

As has become typical at this point in the season, Will Venable said postgame Tuesday night that they were still discussing who would start Wednesday night's game.

To provide a peek behind the curtain, usually this is followed by a text message from a media relations staffer to beat writers 20 minutes later with the name of whatever reliever has tabbed to serve as an opener, or head up a bullpen game. The only reason to hold off any word deep into Wednesday is if naming the starter also involves announcing a roster move, especially if it involves a player getting designated for assignment.

Lo and behold:

"It’s all about strikes," Will Venable said of his prodigal opening day starter. "We’ve seen it kind of pop up early in his starts often. And specifically to left-handed hitters. He went to work on it. Mixed results early, the first couple of starts there. Some of the underlying stuff was a lot better than it looked on paper. And a really good one his last one. He’s in a good spot and excited to throw him back out there."

Burke's velocity was down in his first outing in Charlotte, and he didn't make it out of the second inning in his follow-up. So while six innings and three runs allowed a week ago, with seven strikeouts and no walks, felt like a step in the right direction, it was less than obvious it would immediately lead to a big league opportunity. But the two home runs Burke allowed in his last Triple-A outing were both sub-340 feet Truist Field specials, he hit 98 mph on the gun, and even offered up some successful guest appearances of his changeup.

The alternative to calling up a ready and stretched out starter would have been Mike Vasil throwing 50 pitches, or Tyler Alexander pitching right-handed, or something else too convoluted for a September game against the Rays. So here's Burke instead.

"We selected [Burke] as our opening day starter and he’s pitched really well at times, and [we're] confident that he’s going to get back to the best version of himself and the best version of him is absolutely a starter in the major leagues," Venable said. "He’s fully built up. I know they were kind of monitoring his innings there in Triple A a little bit, but he’s still in a good spot, still can pitch deep into the game. Excited to have him back."

Griffin Jax is starting for the Rays, so someone is opening the game with a reliever, but it won't be the White Sox.

Obviously the very unsuccessful nature of Jonathan Cannon's return to the majors had a lot to do with his swift return to Charlotte, and Venable has not been inclined to forecast pitching plans much in advance. But he also did not provide any assurance that Burke was guaranteed anything past Wednesday night.

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A few hours later, the White Sox offered up another roster move by reinstating Miguel Vargas from the IL, assessing that a few days hitting off the Trajekt was enough to determine him ready to return from a sprained hand. If only we had assurances that all human-CPU relations in the future will have as much mutual respect and appreciation as Venable and the White Sox Trajekt machine.

"It's a game-changer for me," Venable said. "You get to see velocity. You get to see shapes. You get to do it at a high volume, and you don't have to play a bunch of innings of defense in between and build up that way. You know, you get to do it at your home ballpark. It's a real game-changer and gives me confidence that he's gonna be able to transition from not playing to playing pretty seamlessly."

Bryan Ramos was optioned back to Charlotte to make room for Vargas, which is not an encouraging note for his overall development. But Ramos had made three starts since being called up on Sept. 1, and that was with Vargas sidelined, so it's easy to imagine Triple-A quickly becoming a less frustrating place to be for him.

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Personal bias aside, it seemed like Sox Machine did an appropriate job of treating it like Luis Robert Jr. was done for the season when he suffered a Grade 2 hamstring strain. That's coming in handy, as it continues to really sound like he's done for the season.

"It feels like we're running out of time," Venable said. "No decisions have been made. We're still taking it day by day with him, but it feels like we're gonna be up against it. Some of the early progress maybe not there to kind of get excited about momentum, and getting to a spot where we could get him built back up and put him on the field. So yeah, we're not sticking the fork in him yet, but we acknowledge we're probably running out of time here."

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The White Sox need an 8-9 finish to avoid a third-straight 100 loss season.

First pitch: White Sox vs. Rays

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