Prior to Sunday’s game, the White Sox placed outfielder Andrew Benintendi on the 10-day injured list today due to left Achilles tendinitis. Oscar Colas was called up from Triple-A to take Benintendi’s roster spot, as Francys Romero was the first to report Saturday.
It seemed likely that Benintendi was headed for the IL after he was removed early from Saturday’s game. Sox manager Pedro Grifol revealed to reporters that Benintendi had been playing with the injury for a while and though the outfielder even homered prior to his early exit Saturday, the discomfort just became too much for Benintendi to bear.
The IL placement is yet another bad turn in Benintendi’s star-crossed tenure with the White Sox. He signed a five-year, $75M free agent deal with Chicago in the 2022-23 offseason, but then hit only .262/.326/.356 over 621 plate appearances last year. The follow-up has been even worse, as Benintendi’s .195/.230/.284 slash line over 200 PA in 2024 has given him the lowest fWAR (-1.6) of any qualified player in baseball. While there are still over three and a half years remaining on Benintendi’s deal, the largest contract in White Sox history is already looking like an albatross, which isn’t great news for a rebuilding Sox team that will be trying to move as much veteran talent as possible in order to reload with younger players.
Colas was in Sunday’s starting lineup against the Brewers and he has appeared in one other MLB game this season (a pinch-hit appearance in Chicago’s 7-6 loss to Cleveland on April 10). The outfielder has otherwise spent the season at Triple-A Charlotte, hitting .244/.358/.406 with five home runs over 193 PA. It seems possible that this could be another cup of coffee type of promotion for Colas, as Luis Robert Jr. is expected to be activated from the injured list this coming week and possibly as early as Tuesday when the White Sox next take the field.
Then again, Colas’ time in the Show could also be elongated depending on Andrew Vaughn’s status, as Vaughn has missed Chicago’s last three games. Vaughn hasn’t played since spraining his left ring finger while sliding into a base on Wednesday and manager Pedro Grifol told MLB.com and other media that the plan was to see how Vaughn felt after 3-5 days of rest. If Vaughn still isn’t showing improvement on Tuesday, he might go on the IL himself (with three days of backdated placement) if Robert is ready to be activated.
Vaughn is unfortunately not far ahead of Benintendi, as Vaughn’s -0.8 fWAR is the fourth-worst of any qualified player. The former third overall pick had a 107 wRC+ and a .264/.317/.429 slash line over 1170 PA during the 2022-23 seasons, but he has taken a big step backwards with a .199/.264/.313 slash and four homers in his first 220 trips to the plate this year. Gavin Sheets has been filling in at first base in Vaughn’s absence.
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