Pregame notes: Nearing the home stretch

Editor’s note: We regret to inform you that this is the penultimate game James is covering for Sox Machine. We’ll announce where he’s going in the coming days, but he will still be covering the White Sox in short order, so you won’t have to mourn his absence like the last time. It does mark the end of being able to influence his coverage toward your areas of interest or obsession with the clout of your subscription, and truly is a sad day for us all.

Anyways! With that out of the way, Miguel Vargas is getting a day off from the lineup.

First off, it's not a real day off. With how much Will Venable and the White Sox love to pinch-hit, Vargas' day off will probably last all the way up to the first left-handed Reds reliever coming into the game.

"It’s one of those," Venable conceded with a laugh. "It’s not going to be a full off day."

Second, hopefully Vargas enjoys those innings off, because for him and all the positional regulars heading into the final kick of a close divisional race, it might be one of his last scheduled days off for the year.

"Especially a guy like Vargas, who is one of our best players in there every single day, you gotta take care of him," Venable said. "I know we just had an off day but getting a couple of these guys a couple of days off here as we get into the stretch. It might jut be one more for some of these guys in September. We got a long way to go here."

And to show that the White Sox haven't gone soft, not only is Chase Meidroth back in the lineup despite walking around with a brace on his sore left wrist, but he's playing shortstop in this one.

"There will be some pain that he has to deal with, but I think structurally, and as far as the function of his wrist, you anticipate that he's fine," Venable said. "The brace is more precautionary, and if it adds to his ability to navigate through a game, then great."

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Kyle Teel has been out of his walking boot and able to run on his sprained left ankle each of the past two days. Chris Getz suggested Teel could be back around the start of September, and his recent uptick in activity aligns with that.

"He’s progressing really well," said Venable He’s running for the first time yesterday. I think he got about 80 percent of his speed. Hitting, ramping up hitting today, dry swings yesterday and ramping up hitting today. You would like to think one week from now, as far as hitting goes, he’s kind of full-go [for] hitting.

Behind that will be the defensive stuff, more the running stuff. More of the non-hitting stuff. And so, you hope he progresses to a point where again, without putting a firm timeline, at the end of the month around then he’s looking at a rehab assignment. Again, I don’t think that’s too premature but that’s also leaving some room for a week on either side."

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Luis Castillo is pitching this one, which will test a reader hypothesis that me writing at length about anyone is some sort of curse. Honestly, it makes sense, as I wrote about all the players and coaches at length throughout the 2023-25 seasons and well...yeah.

With Grant Taylor burned for two innings on Tuesday, the White Sox won't have their best leverage weapon available. So while Jordan Hicks, Huascar Brazobán, Tanner McDougal or single innings of Bryan Hudson, Sean Newcomb, and maybe Hagen Smith would all be possible to see, the Sox would like to see Castillo what they brought him here to do.

"In general, as we look at Luis Castillo and what he means for us, that’s going to be his job; to eat up some innings, quality innings," Venable said. "[He's] a guy who has done it for a long time and you can trust him to navigate lineups and pitch deep into games."

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The second-place Detroit Tigers just placed All-Star outfielder Riley Greene on the injured list with a right hamstring strain. That would be relevant enough to a Sox fan audience to note, but what caught my attention is Corey Julks was added to the roster in his place.

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The White Sox are TBA for their starter on Friday in Detroit, where as Anthony Kay and Sean Burke will pitch Saturday and Sunday.

Guess the White Sox and I have something in common for our Friday.

First pitch: White Sox vs. Reds

TV: CHSN

Radio: ESPN 1000 AM

Lineups: