Pregame Notes: Eloy Jiménez is feeling good enough to play (2024)

If putting him in the cleanup spot Monday night against the Dodgers wasn’t enough of a statement, Pedro Grifol spoke without much concern for how much Eloy Jiménez looked hobbled on the basepaths in his first game back on Sunday.

“Felt good,” Grifol said of what the reports were on Jiménez’s left leg. “Every report I got today was that he was feeling pretty good. And yesterday, I think he said on turns that it might have bothered him a little bit but on straightaways he felt good. We’ll see how it works out today in the game.”

Grifol acknowledged that the inclination from Jiménez, as well as from Luis Robert Jr., is to play through nagging injuries and discomfort, which puts the White Sox in the position of having the establish the boundaries. Jiménez appeared diminished in all of his baserunning opportunities on Sunday, not just on turns, but Grifol suggested a lag between being cleared to play and actually trusting his legs to sustain maximum effort as an explanation.

“After injuries like that, I don’t think guys are ever going to be 100 percent, especially mentally–they don’t want to get hurt again,” Grifol said. “We are where we are. We’ve had some guys who have had some significant injuries, and sometimes you’ve got to take it easy. Robert had a significant injury. Sometimes he’ll go back and get it, sometimes he won’t. With Eloy, he got here yesterday. His last at-bat, he ran pretty good down the line. The double was just OK.”

It all sounds pretty uncertain, and the sight of Jiménez legging out an infield single feels like it will be a while off–or at least that it should be. But the White Sox have acted with intention to slot their DH sporting a .663 OPS in the last guaranteed year of his contract back in the lineup, so surely the reward of such work will present itself.

— Mike Clevinger is at Triple-A to get his pitch count up, restore the timing in his delivery and make sure his elbow holds up against game intensity, not auditioning for a rotation spot. To that end, he threw 71 pitches for the Knights on Sunday and topped out at 95.4 mph. But there’s no harm in wondering aloud if five runs in 4 2/3 innings and striking out two of the 22 Triple-A hitters he faced represents being a step away from pitching effectively in the majors.

Grifol said no decision has been made yet on what the next step for Clevinger will be. The Sox have not announced their starters past Thursday’s makeup game against the Braves (Drew Thorpe is listed for that one) and Clevinger wouldn’t be due up until Friday.

— Andrew Benintendi is out of the lineup against lefty James Paxton, after he went 1-for-10 with four strikeouts and grounded into a double play in Detroit. Grifol quickly diffused a suggestion that he might platoon with Corey Julks.

“I don’t look at it that strict,” Grifol said. “I just look at it: Paxton’s pretty tough. He’s been a pretty good pitcher in this league for a long time. I’m giving Beni a day to kind of recover a little bit. He was on the IL not too long ago. So I’m going to take advantage of Paxton being on the mound today and give Corey a chance to go out there in left field and give Benintendi a chance to let his body rest.”

— Hitting coach Marcus Thames isn’t trying to concede that a long wait for hitters to be effective after returning from injury is inevitable, as much as it has seemed to dog Jiménez and Robert at times.

“Up here it’s hard to rehab, these guys are pretty talented,” Thames said. “It’s just human nature. Guys that have had success, they want it back right away instead of trusting the process. I’ve been talking to Luis about it and said ‘Just make sure you swing at good pitches.’ The umpire calling an outside pitch on you and you get frustrated and say ‘I’m not taking that pitch anymore,’ and you swing at it and start chasing more. Just stay within the moment and stay within the zone and hopefully he can get back to where he needs to be.”

— Garrett Crochet has faced Shohei Ohtani twice in his career, and has two strikeouts.

First Pitch: White Sox at Dodgers

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