Pregame notes: Shuffling for bullpen relief

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- When is a starter from Triple-A being called up not an obvious replacement for the starter who was just demoted?

When the bullpen is bedraggled enough that they need a multi-inning option, even more urgently than when Tyler Schweitzer would next be available, since they optioned him for Duncan Davitt.

"We need some availability here, No. 1," Will Venable said. "A lot of good righties [for the Royals], and so Davitt gives us some really good length. Gives us an opportunity, if the situation calls for it, to give some of these other guys a rest. We’ve been pitching in some spots, played a lot of close games, so the bullpen needs a little bit of a blow."

Brandon Eisert was recalled as well after making seven billion appearances for the 2025 team, but his arrival is for more of a straight swap for Chris Murphy, who was placed on the injured list with an impingement in his pitching elbow. Though Venable's description of how Murphy suffered the injury dovetails with the larger need for fresh arms for middle relief.

"Just an elbow impingement there, that as he’s been used and used a lot he hasn’t been able to recover from it," Venable said. "It turned into an IL pretty quick here."

Venable said the Sox are still undecided for the next turn of Shane Smith's rotation slot.

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Neither Kyle Teel nor Austin Hays are candidates to be activated from the IL this weekend, but they're both with the team in Kansas City, and injury updates are easy content.

It might have been deflating to see Hays hop around on one leg as the go-ahead run scored on Monday night in Chicago, but he suspects the manuever saved him from greater injury.

"I went to get into another gear there with how far I had to go for that ball, and when I tried to push it to really get up to speed, I felt that sharp stabbing pain down low in the hammy," Hays said. "I've had people tell me that when you feel it, if you take another two or three steps, that's when you really go. So that's why I pulled up so hard the way that I did, and tried to jump on one leg so I could get off of it immediately. I don't know if that helped me or not, but initially, like I said, I thought it was a lot worse. But it was low Grade 1 [strain], so maybe being able to pull up the way I did and kind of get off of it right away, might have saved me from making it worse."

Hays has plenty of regrets still, mainly that he felt he was starting to see pitches well and that his timing was coming around at the plate (7-for-32 with 12 K on the year). He still can't swing yet, but is planning on being glued to the Trajekt machine once he's cleared to start.

"When we've progressed to that point where I'm hitting BP on the field, hitting machine, taking game-like swings, the Trajekt machine helps a lot with seeing game-like stuff," Hays said. "It's very beneficial to have, especially at home. So I'll try to utilize that as much as I can when we get to that point."

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Davitt's story about his callup at the Iowa newspaper his parents run is already up, since he wrote it on the flight to Kansas City on Wednesday night. After the fake drug test gag for Tyler Schweitzer's callup, Davitt wasn't very caught by surprise by how Charlotte Knights manager Chad Pinder delivered the news, but there have still been plenty of emotions.

"I grew up 2 1/2 hours from here, so this is the stadium I grew up going to the most often. I think I’m going to have 35 people here from my hometown and cousins who live in Northwest Arkansas as well," Davitt said. "My chest didn’t start getting tight until I started walking in. It started settling in around [my teammates]. I walked out, took a look at the field from a little bit of a different perspective. It was kind of a whirlwind."

Venable made it clear that he was most excited for how Davitt's sweeper plays down and away to the Salvador Perezes of the world, which echoes the feedback Davitt has gotten from the White Sox about his arsenal.

"They've done a really good job of just letting me be me," Davitt said. "I got up to Triple-A with the Rays and obviously something was working there. They really wanted to learn what it was that's working and let me kind of blossom and learn from them. As far as changes, they really like the sweeper so I've thrown that a little bit more often. We've kind of overhauled the changeup grip and the changeup has been fantastic to start the year so far down in Triple-A. Those are probably the two biggest ones, but especially the changeup."

After Schweitzer was thankful that his big league opportunity was coming just as he was having to thinking about paying for a kid, Davitt seems like he's going to be putting his sports journalism career further on the backburner. He really seems to enjoy covering high school volleyball, but not that much.

"It's something I've thought about a little bit but it's not at the front of my mind at the moment," Davitt said of working in journalism later down the road. "But it's an option, I guess."

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White Sox at Royals

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Radio: ESPN 1000 AM

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