Pregame notes: Jarred Kelenic is here, if not for the perfect reason

The White Sox hyped the addition of Jarred Kelenic more than the typical minor league signing this offseason, owing to his past prospect status and his extensive work with fellow Nashville resident Ryan Fuller.

Now he's in Chicago and even if the season numbers still look wonky for a call-up, his contract was purchased on the heels of a massive Triple-A heater. Over his last 10 games with the Knights, Kelenic has hit .333/.467/.833 with five home runs. The strikeouts remain elevated, but the case for him being able to help is stronger than it's been all year.

"Ultimately, it was getting him into a free space both mentally and physically to be like, 'Hey man, just go get as many good swings off as you can,' kind of thing," said farm director Paul Janish. "For the last two and half, three weeks he’s kind of executed that. It’s a credit to him, I give a ton of credit to our staff down there for a lack of a better word, kind of grinding it out and getting him to a good place."

The downside is that he's coming up to take the place of a separate former top prospect reclamation project in Everson Pereira, whose right pectoral strain is his third physical malady of the young season. Also there's an open 40-man spot because Doug Nikhazy was claimed off waivers by the Cubs.

"It's impacting the swing," Will Venable said of Pereira. "Definitely feeling it on the throwing. Just gotta figure out what all is going on and take care of it and make sure he's all right."

The White Sox announced the roster move fairly late, after they had already announced their lineup, with Venable saying that Pereira was still being evaluated at the time of his pregame briefing. Kelenic might not have figured into lineup against left-hander Yusei Kikuchi anyway, but in losing one of their right-handed hitters, Venable may have to make some sacrifices to his approach of emphasizing platoon advantages.

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Tanner McDougal left his Triple-A start early on Wednesday morning, which isn't good. It happened just as Janish was addressing the media, so it's a wait for an official update at this point.

It doesn't sound like Braden Montgomery is long for Double-A.

"He's in a great spot and he's answered every challenge and I think he'll be looking for a new challenge sometime in the near future," Janish said.

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Jordan Leasure clearly isn't at his best, but the White Sox accept that home runs will be part of the picture for a guy running a 25 percent ground ball rate at the moment.

"He's a fly ball pitcher," Venable said. "Sometimes he's gonna get hurt. I thought last night, obviously he gave up the homer, but otherwise, it was pretty clean and efficient. I think that that's going to be part of what you see from him from time to time, is some damage against him. 
Now, outings where he's going out and walking multiple hitters, that's something that we're not used to seeing.

Too many of those, and you want to make sure that you're supporting him in a better way. But Leas is one of our guys that we depend on and as long as we're not overusing him, which falls on me because we do want him in there so much, he'll be fine."

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