The White Sox announced that third baseman Yoán Moncada has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 18, with a right hamstring strain. Shortstop Tim Anderson is back from the IL in a corresponding move, as manager Tony La Russa announced yesterday.
It’s the second IL stint of the season for Moncada, who lost the first month-plus of the year battling an oblique strain. He returned in early May and has appeared in 29 games, but he’s posted career-worst production in the early going. Through 113 trips to the plate, the switch-hitting Moncada owns just a .179/.230/.292 line with three home runs. He recorded only one extra-base hit between May 16 and June 13, and this season’s 5.3% walk rate is a career low.
That’s been a disappointing follow-up to one of the better campaigns of Moncada’s career. He hit .263/.375/.412 last season, offensive production that checked in 22 percentage points above league average by measure of wRC+. Moncada’s slow start is one of a handful of contributors to the team’s mediocre 31-33 record, and his efforts to snap out of that funk will be put on hold by another injury.
Jake Burger steps into the lineup at the hot corner for this evening’s contest with the Blue Jays. That’ll presumably be a regular role for the former first-round pick, who owns a .257/.308/.472 line through 157 plate appearances. Burger has collected eight homers and seven doubles to make a strong impact from a power perspective, but he’s punched out in 31.2% of his trips to the plate while posting a modest 5.7% walk rate.
I cannot believe Harrison wasn’t released and am livid that he is starting tonight instead of Mendick.
Wow, I haven’t seen the lineup yet, but am bummed Mendick isn’t at 2B. He’s earned it, in my opinion. Although, I’ve read that Harrison is the hotter bat this June (on paper). My eye test votes for Mendick though, and I prefer his grit over Harrison’s playfulness. A 31-33 team, with high aspirations, is not fun. I prefer grit and accountability than JH “revving the Harley” to celebrate his weekly single.
That’s a bit harsh. With fun comes energy, and with TA out, someone’s gotta take the initiative to bring FUN back to the clubhouse. If we wanna win, we gotta WANT to win. If Harrison is doing better than Mendick, play Harrison. Vice versa as well. Just my opinion.
Certainly Mendick seems better than Harrison. I don’t really believe in the whole “hot hand” thing so better to go with the guy who isn’t a hair away from retirement.
Still feel that way?
Why, cause Harrison accidentally ran into one tonight and made a couple of plays in one game? He is barely hitting over his weight. Id much prefer Mendick out there. We already have a guy that’s a super ute that cannot hit his weight in Garcia, one or both need to go.
Harrison is hitting over .360 this past week. They owe it to themselves to see if it’s for real or not considering the amount of money they invested into him this offseason.
socal: not saying Harrison should be shot to the moon but you’re getting close to a sunk cost fallacy. The amount they’ve invested in him should have no bearing on their plans for him. It’s just that Mendick is clearly better and more likely to be a part of the future.
friendly: Are you one of these people that judges players based on one game? Cuz that’s idiotic. I’m not changing my opinion based on 5 plate appearances; not how any of this works.
This is lining up to be a lost season for Moncada, but overall the Chris Sale trade has worked out well for both clubs. Prior to this season, Moncada has been very good and this year, Kopech is showing his potential as a dominant #2 starter; and a possible #1. Sale was lights out for Boston in his first two seasons but it has been a nightmare for both him and the club since he signed that big extension ~ 2.5 years ago. If Moncada can get back on track and Kopech continues to excel, you could make the case that Chicago won this trade; it just took longer than expected to see the results. With that said, Boston still makes this trade as Sale helped lead them to a WS title in 2018 and Kopech would not have been ready in 2018 to help them win. The only downside of the deal has been the 5 year Sale extension. Boston has received zero value out of that so far. Hopefully Sale is back on the mound soon and can help the Boston bullpen get stronger by pushing Whitlock back to the bullpen where he belongs.
What season other than 2019 wasn’t “lost” for him?
The trade for Sale worked out spectacularly and was well worth it. Re signing him was an enormous mistake.
Chris Sale was on the mound for the last out of a World Series victory. I see almost no scenario where a team doesn’t “win” that trade. In five years Kopech has started 20 games and Moncada has been overwhelmingly an underachiever. The Red Sox have the money to waste on Sale and the White Sox have the money to waste on Moncada….so that’s almost a wash.
Agreed, the team that wins the trade is the one that won a WS with that player. Period. To me, so far from what Ive seen, Moncada is a lazy and ‘me first’ guy, he’s too busying wearing his 800 gold chains and ensuring his hair is pretty when his batting helmet falls off (which is all the time, even when he is just swinging at the ball). The only time he hits, apparently, is when he is planning to go on the DL for either a phantom soft tissue injury or a real one because he apparently does not take conditioning his body seriously. He just seems really ‘soft’, both physically and apparently mentally. The irony being that was, I think, the knock on Kopech when the Sox traded for him, now Kopech really looks like the guy the Sox got for Sale. Hopefully he can take the next steps to be an ace type pitcher..
So bad so bad. Why bother watching? Meathead post of the month
Stop projecting.
Moncada should be traded, but I doubt he has much value given his poor constitution. He HAD the potential to be a phenomenal player, but he’ll never stay healthy or consistent enough to realize his potential. Time to move on Hahn!
Dude can’t play if its below 90 degrees outside. They need to send him to the west coast
Sadly they’ll trade him and then he’ll wake up and realize that he has to produce if he wants his money. If they can, they should demote him to AA for the rest of their season to teach him a lesson. Maybe then he’ll wake up and grow up. I also believe that Abreu has some fault in this as well, He is a guy these younger guys supposedly look up to. Where is he at? He should be all over Moncada to get him to straighten up.
Since Yoan is owed over $50 million for the next two and a half seasons, Sox fans better be rooting for a turnaround because the market for him will be limited and Hahn would be selling low. It will be like when the Cubs were exploring trading Kris Bryant.
Well said Donny. Chisox are gonna have to pay the man!!! And Moncada doesn’t seem to be exactly a motivated guy. Especially if the temperature isn’t to his liking.
Cut bait with this guy. You can’t depend on him
Probably just end up with somebody worse in that case.
Moncada hasn’t been the same player since he caught Covid. He would seem to have suffered long Covid as well if you remember how his energy level was down when he came back.
Uh, he was doing this before the COVID year.
What a shocker, Yoan needs to change his name to ‘Ouchie’ Moncada (‘Big Hurt’ would fit if it wasn’t taken and also didn’t mean something completely to the antithesis of this guy). To me, Moncada has never been a hard worker, that is evident by his injury history and somewhat lackadaisical attitude (and weak in the mind and body apparently). I think he just likes going to the park, shining the bench with his @$$ and collecting his check. When he finally heats it up and realizes he will be expected to produce like that every game, whoops.. another soft tissue injury.. Its almost like clockwork with this guy. Someone needs to basically read him the riot act and challenge his manhood, and Im not sure who that is in this dugout. Apparently its not Abreu, which is weird because these guys look up to him. I just think of all of the under-performing on this team. I mean Robert got only his 6th homer tonight… Eloy is constantly hurt and even when he was not he wasn’t hitting anything this season. Abreu looks awful this season and constantly looks like he is in pain when he walks or runs.
As for what I mean by ‘effort’. Burger had two Achilles injuries in his career and set his progress back 2-3 seasons. Now he is up in the bigs, and I do not see him wasting at bats or pulling back on effort… Same with Mendick.
Worst out of a pretty bad track record of posts. Yeah just Gung ho your way out of injuries by manning up. Are you a 5th grade gym teacher,
Keep projecting fanboy. I call them like I see em.
Moncada has the talent to be an MVP-caliber player. As others have stated numerous times, Moncada doesn’t have the motivation, constitution, or mental fortitude to fulfill his true potential. As far as I’m concerned, he’s played his way out of a Sox uniform. Let someone else worry about how long he’ll stay in the lineup before getting hurt. Time to move on.
Burger is a major liability in the field w/ 6 errors in 32 starts. While he had won some games w/ his bat, he had lost plenty w/ his horrible footwork & awful throws. He is DH only type & he has hurt the Sox
It’s true, but I blame TLR and Hahn for that more than I blame Burger. Hahn drafted a bunch of 1B/DH types, and traded for another in Eloy. Then TLR played him where he’d had little real experience and doesn’t have the tools he needs to succeed. Yes, he could be better (and I honestly do expect some improvement over time), but putting a square peg in a round hole is on management.
Think Rick did that in response to Kennys spotty record of drafting toolsy athketic guys who couldn’t hit. So an emphasis on pure hitters regardless of where they played. Sure seemed to work w Andrew Vaughn. Nicky Madrigal. Not so much. Anyhoo- the MLB draft is a crapshoot, maybe 1 in 3-4 1st rounders go on to become major league regulars. Thankfully the draft record is starting to pivot. Colson Montgomery is looking pretty impressive.
Sox drafted 4 SS’s last year, WHY ?
Because SS is arguably the most demanding infield position to play and some of these guys will probably shift over to 2B or 3B. Easier to shift from SS than into SS.
True, Robin Yount went from SS to centerfield and became a Hall of Famer. Same could happen with TA but his ego won’t let him see the possibility of playing any outfield position. It’s his career, let him ruin it by staying at short.
The truth. Jake’s a great story and good guy who seems to be having so much fun, but Moncada, when healthy is one of the cornerstones and a top 3 3b w his all around game. Advanced plate discipline and one of the top defenders at the hot corner. Wish it was as simple as manning up and 5th grade gym teachering your way out of the effects of Covid and various injuries.
I love the qualifier ‘When healthy’… Moncada had plenty of injuries before Covid and It was the same story then as is now. Sure maybe he is just unlucky, but you would think after 6+ years of being with the Sox, the conditioning and training staff would have him on a regiment to fix/prevent these nagging injuries (especially, and most egregiously, a hamstring issue which he seems to have every year, even before Covid). You would also like to think for the cash he is getting he would have enough pride and competitiveness to work his tail off to stay healthy (and maybe he is and its just not getting press, but given how much the Sox reporting is fawning over the team you would think there would be a story about it somewhere)..So its either the entire Sox Conditioning staff is inept (which it could be considering how many of these soft tissue injuries occur on the Sox), or a poor commitment to conditioning, or a bit of both. You’re right, when healthy the talent is there. The issue is either he gets injured an awful lot, I would like to think they are legit injuries, but then if that’s the case what on earth is the Sox conditioning staff doing?!
TA made over 50 errors in one season before being promoted to the Majors. Why? If you can’t play defense you shouldn’t be in the majors.
Moncada and TA have combined to miss 50 games so far. A .250 hitter gets you at least one hit per game. Guys on the DL get you zero, nada, no hits per game. That’s at least 50 hits missing from the team stats so far this year. And 125 hits projected at this point. Trade them both, keep Mendick, Vaughn, Burger in the lineup with Abreu and Robert along with Engel for defense , plus two new guys with the trades and you win the division. Trade Jimenez while you are at it for a pitcher. Montas maybe, he’s worth it. 8 quality starts so far, with an awful team.
No playoffs for this club
What was your first clue! lol
Seriously, I stopped buying into the “World Series contender” narrative after the sh#t offseason they had. This ALWAYS happens in Chicago. They stumble on a few talented young players, then refuse to finish the rebuild in any meaningful way. You CANNOT, snd WILL NOT win a damn thing with just young talent. You gotta spend the money. This is why every promising roster in any sport in Chicago ends like sh#t.