Pregame notes: Playing hurt

Every healthy position player on the White Sox 40-man roster is on the active roster.

That was true before Austin Hays suffered a Grade 1 right hamstring strain on Monday night, putting him on the shelf for an estimated 2-4 weeks and necessitating Dustin Harris' contract to be purchased from Triple-A Charlotte. But losing Hays for up to a month certainly underscores it, as did the announcement that Brooks Baldwin is out for the season after undergoing an internal brace procedure on his ailing right elbow.

"As something he’s dealt with before, he wasn’t feeling like there was enough progress and had surgery," said Will Venable, continuing the trend of short answers from White Sox leadership about Baldwin's status.

Harris, 26, has received a couple of cups of coffee in the majors before along with nearly 300 Triple-A games, and is certainly an easy fit with the more limited reserve role that Venable seemed to forecast for him. But the White Sox already had a light-hitting outfield before losing one of their most proven contributors in Hays. That and pretty much any opportunity for a roster move brings forth the question of "what about Sam Antonacci?"

"Sam is going to be a part of this thing," Venable said. "He’s got work to do. He’s got to continue to be exposed to the outfield. Part of being a growing player in the outfield is making mistakes and learning from those mistakes. That’s where you really grow the most. So, given the opportunity to do that a little bit makes sense. We have a number of lefties [opposing starters] coming up here. As we are kind of piecing it all together, we think about Sam all the time but in this case Dustin was the right guy."

Another element could be that it's a fairly short window of opportunity with Everson Pereira on the mend from his left ankle sprain. He tested out his left foot running on the field Tuesday morning, and spoke like someone who wants to play in five days when he's eligible to return.

"I've been doing my drills in the cage, I've been hitting more in the cage now than before when the injury happened," Pereira said via interpreter. "I feel that I can play but the trainers are being just cautious. Right now we're just trying to test it as much as we can."

But to pump the brakes, Venable stipulated that Pereira will be heading to Charlotte for a rehab assignment before he returns to the active roster. After missing so much of the spring with an oblique issue, the Sox feel that asking Pereira to jump back into action immediately again would be a guaranteed bad time.

"Especially this time of the year where he had the limited exposure to spring training at-bats, then to very quickly go down here, I think it’s in his best interest to go get some at-bats," Venable said. "Don’t expect it to be a long rehab stint, but got to get him back up to speed here. So he will go to Charlotte at some point."

So this whole, long winding narrative is just an explanation for how the White Sox found themselves back here, with Andrew Benintendi starting in left field in their 11th game of the season and probably returning to regular duty there for a while.

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Kyle Teel could be spotting doing some hitting in the team's "hitting lab," which is visible from the area where media typically gathers to speak to Venable on days where the weather is to poor to host a briefing outside. Perhaps Teel was just working there also because it's cold, because Venable said there's no update on when he will begin a rehab assignment.

While some reality of the recovery process has set in to the initially boundless optimism Teel had about his recovery timeline, this shouldn't be confused with the non-updates on Baldwin that were just him weighing rehab versus surgical options.

"He is progressing very well," Venable said. "He’s very excited, he’s been excited about his progress the entire time here. I think part of that, especially with a hamstring, is to temper that excitement and really direct it towards the rehab process and the things you need to do. Knowing that he is on the right track, though."

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With all the outfield tumult and recent offensive slowness, Munetaka Murakami is getting a day off. Venable said it was a scheduled off day, and it comes against a lefty.

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Baltimore Orioles--DON'T READ THIS

"Shane's four-seam was obviously really good last year," said pitching coach Zach Bove, who has been working with Shane Smith in restoring his fastball command. "He threw it a lot, and we're going to go to that today. That's the plan. If we have to pivot, we'll be able to pivot, but we're going to shift to what Shane is really good at."

First pitch: White Sox vs. Orioles

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