The long wait for Kyle Teel's 2026 debut will go on for significantly longer.
After Will Venable said that Teel injured his right knee Saturday when "his cleat got caught in the swing," during his rehab assignment with Triple-A Charlotte, the White Sox announced he was flown to Chicago to be evaluated on Monday. The resulting diagnosis is a sprained lateral collateral ligament in his right knee, which the team said will require 3-6 weeks of rest and rehabilitation before he can return to play.
Teel hit .267/.353/.467 in four rehab games, but had yet to complete nine innings in the field at the time of his injury, and will surely need another ramp-up assignment with the Knights, taking his potential return to the White Sox at mid-June at the earliest.
The White Sox catching situation didn't seem so dire over their past homestand, what with Edgar Quero's capping a three-hit game on Sunday with an exhilarating walk-off home run, and Drew Romo's surprising power contributions and funky .184/.340/.553 batting line.
But overall, the White Sox are bottom-five in MLB by both Baseball Reference and FanGraphs' wins above replacement metrics, and it's as much for their worst in baseball blocking performance and below-average framing as it is for offensive struggles. Teel struggled some with blocking last season, but finished with average framing metrics while slashing .273/.375/.411 at the plate in 78 games in the majors, and the organization believes there's a lot of defensive potential yet to be fully tapped.
"There’s a very high ceiling defensively for Kyle," bench coach Walker McKinven said recently. "I think he’s one of the most athletic people in the position in the league. Yeah, very excited about the prospects of him and waking, throwing, receiving, game-calling — all the things that go into a catcher’s job. I think there’s an extremely high ceiling for him."
