Pregame notes: Here’s Tanner Murray

From the day he was acquired at the Rule 5 protection deadline last November, Murray seemed destined to be the first man up from Charlotte when there was an injury on the White Sox infield.

Time has proven that notion foolish, as with Everson Pereira hitting the injured list for a left ankle sprain (backdated to April 2, so he could be back in a week), Murray was called up in response to an injury in the White Sox outfield. Of course, Murray has played almost anywhere on the diamond and the Sox opened the year with six outfielders, but the 26-year-old will make his major league debut at short all the same.

Murray hit .304/.467/.609 through his first six games at Charlotte, but Knights manager Chad Pinder had some bits he was going to work through while delivering life-altering news to his player, regardless of what the numbers said.

"He had some jokes for me and then told me hopefully the hole in my bat was fixed because Chicago is going to need it," Murray said. "The butterflies came in about the second joke. I kind of forget the whole conversation, but once the butterflies started hitting me, then it became real."

A former walk-on at UC-Davis who put himself on the map with his sophomore season before being drafted in the COVID year of 2020, Murray has done everything but pitch and catch in pro baseball.

"If they need me to hand out water, I'll do that," Murray said. "If they need me to play left field, I can do that too."

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It's probably a little rich for a team like the White Sox to have a Sunday lineup against a team like the Blue Jays, but with a left-handed opposing starter on the mound, it's certainly a different look. The lefties and righties are not inter-laced in the same way, Colson Montgomery has the day off entirely and switch-hitting Edgar Quero is hitting higher than he has all year.

There was no way in hell the White Sox were going to have Grant Taylor pitch on three consecutive days. But Brian Bannister's media session on Sunday spoke to how Taylor handled the repeat assignment fairly well, and was a bit more frank about how the right-hander ended up in the bullpen in the first place. Taylor's delivery in the rotation had been described as a long-term health concern, but there was short-term feedback as well.

"We started him out as a starter last year, flipped him to the pen because he was getting store as a starter, the velo went from mid-90s back up to 100-plus," Bannister said. "The arsenal is there, he’s added the two-seamer, he’s able to show one arsenal Day 1 and then a version Day 2 that was different to surprise the guys a little bit, throwing 101 mph sinkers out there."

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So, Davis Martin has to face the top of the Blue Jays order all on his own on Sunday.

"He pitches at a great facility in the offseason in Oklahoma and did some really good work," Bannister said. "We added the kick-change a couple of years ago, and he has a lot of ability to shape his breaking balls. With him, it’s really just getting into the breaking ball shapes that not only help him avoid platoon splits and gives him weapons versus righties and lefties, but go out there and just rip his arsenal and feel like he’s confident in it. He’s been one of the better pitchers we’ve had over the last two years and I think he can do a lot of things, it’s really just identifying and giving him a lot of reps on what he does best."

First pitch: White Sox vs. Blue Jays

TV: CHSN

Radio: ESPN 1000 AM

Lineups: