Pregame notes: Dour news for Tanner Murray

Tanner Murray's 2026 season probably ended on a diving catch of a soft CJ Abrams liner in the ninth inning of Sunday's afternoon loss to the Nationals. He was placed on the 10-day injured list with a dislocated left shoulder, and that's only the half of it.

"There’s a fracture in there he’ll have to have surgery," Will Venable said. "He’ll be out four-to-six months and hopefully it’s on the quicker end. It’s a significant chunk of time that he will miss."

If it's not on the quicker end, and even if it is, that's both a significant blow to a White Sox roster that had no healthy 40-man roster position players at Triple-A and admitted to returning Austin Hays from his rehab assignment early, and a killer setback for Murray, who spent five full years in the minors before getting this chance.

"It’s always frustrating getting hurt," Murray said. "I felt I’ve been injured in some crazy ways before. But looking back, I’m happy how I played, I’m happy how I went after the ball, I’m glad I caught it. Don’t have any regrets so far."

Murray described his left arm getting caught in the ground at impact as he dove, while his body kept sliding forward. It seems like a lot of the actual moment was a blur to him, but he used terms like "popped out" and "crunched" in reference to his shoulder. I'm merely the son of a doctor, but that usually isn't good. While his surgery has yet to be scheduled and the rehab requirements could dictate things from there, Murray is hopeful to remain around the team as much as he can; kind of like Mike Vasil.

"A little one-two punch," Murray joked.

Between the two of them, there's a functional left and right arm, and two arm braces.

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Hays played five innings of left field for Triple-A Charlotte on Sunday, but is not yet built up to full capacity from his Grade 1 right hamstring strain. His first full start probably won't come until Wednesday against left-handed starter Yusei Kikuchi, and he's merely available off the bench until then.

"We can’t just jump right in to playing every day out there for nine innings," Venable said. "Make sure he’s building volume pregame to make sure he’s in a good spot."

Venable said Sam Antonacci will still start regularly in left field against right-handed pitching, so a possible alignment that will appear more often is Hays in right, and Everson Pereira playing center. That could certainly put the squeeze on a scuffling Luisangel Acuña's playing time.

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Kyle Teel was lightly running with trainers on the field during early work on Monday to test out his hamstring. It's not time to get excited just yet.

"Still working, running today and hitting today," Venable said. "Getting back closer to full speed. So, it’s a day in which after we gave up a little bit of a blow over the weekend to ramp things back up and see where he’s at."

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There's allegedly supposed to be a window to play at some point Monday night, but the game will start in a weather delay until at least 8pm. But let's all put aside our personal priorities and just admit to ourselves that a rainy forecast on Dog Day at the ballpark is objectively funny.

Comedy can come from this, and comedy can heal wounds, if not dry dogs.

Speaking of comedy, Venable unsurprisingly can offer more nuanced answers about hitting and outfield defense given his playing experience. It just leads to a contrast when he talks about pitching, where he offers Edgar Quero levels of bluntness about what Anthony Kay needs to do to bounce back from his last start.

"Gotta throw strikes, pretty simple," Venable said. "You look at our starting pitching right now and we have a number of guys who are pitching extremely well, and that’s because they are being competitive in the zone. So for him, to get on that list, he’s going to have to do the same thing."

First pitch: White Sox vs. Angels

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