Pregame notes: LaMonte Wade Jr. revenge game

These are tense days ahead for the White Sox as the trade deadline nears; days full of speculation, annoyed denials from team officials, and a lot of conversation about maybe trading for a stopgap starting catcher.

"Every year the deadline is a distraction for everybody, whether you are team that is buying or selling, there are implications for every single one of these players," said Will Venable. "Those are the types of conversations we are having; what’s the impact on the clubhouse in those types of deals? As far as where we need help, those are things [Chris Getz] is working through on his own. It’s really just about fits more than anything."

It's more fun to be in a clubhouse that's adding than subtracting, but for players, it nevertheless can take the form of roster turnover and saying goodbye to teammates at a moment's notice. Players could easily find themselves checking out their phone more than usual for the next several days.

Or going in the other direction.

"Turning off my phone," said Chase Meidroth. "Obviously it's looming over us but we have to take care of business in here and put ourselves in a good spot every single day to win a baseball game. We don't control any of that and we've got a lot of good players in here, and we're happy with what we've got right now."

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Noah Schultz has an ERA of 6.04 after his last start and his team is actively pursuing starting pitching, so it's not the firmest hold that anyone has ever had on a rotation spot, but Will Venable said he's scheduled to start against the Yankees next week.

"That’s the plan right now," Venable said. "We evaluate every time through what’s our best five to get us through this and as we’re evaluating this, Noah is someone we really believe strongly in and is working so hard to make these adjustments. Has been able to make some. Now we’ve got to put it all together."

Schultz had a bullpen session on Friday and unsurprisingly, pitching coach Zach Bove said it was largely focused on his slider. Bove refers to it as a curveball, which reflects their work to get more vertical bite on the pitch so it can work against hitters of either handedness.

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Austin Hays (left calf strain) and Everson Pereira (concussion) are both a few games into their rehab assignments at Triple-A Charlotte, but Venable made it sound like it's a question of looking like they're ready to help, not just being physically able to get through a major league game.

"Both of these guys have had tough road with these injuries," Venable said. "We want to make sure we give them opportunities to not just build up but get back to performing at the level they are used to."

That seems like a smooth thematic segue to Munetaka Murakami, who was activated from the injured list as soon as he was able to get through a full game in the field with the Knights, and is looking like he's still working to get on time with velocity. He's hitting .167/.359/.267 with 15 strikeouts in 39 games since returning.

"The last couple of games, I saw him get that leg up and get ready a lot earlier," Venable said. "To me that’s a good sign that he’s putting himself in a much better position. The timing is getting closer and closer, you see him putting more balls in play. Hasn’t clicked that one yet, but he continues to put himself in a good spot and along the way, he continues to make really good swing decisions and takes his walks."

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Roughly eight weeks after being shut down with a flexor strain, Jordan Leasure threw a bullpen on Friday. This sounds like the absolute very beginning of getting him going, but it's a step.

Drew Thorpe got through two innings for his rehab start with High-A Winston-Salem. He struck out two in a perfect first and looked awesome. He walked two before allowing a very long home run in the second, and had his night called after reaching 41 pitches.

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