CHICAGO — A day after Chicago White Sox general manager Chris Getz said all-star centerfielder Luis Robert Jr. is expected to return from injury sometime in mid-May, manager Pedro Grifol offered optimism and said he was impressed with Robert Jr’s progress in recovery.
“I’m up to speed with what he’s doing. I’m really impressed with what he’s doing,” Grifol said pregame Saturday. “I think it’s just a reflection of the work he put in, in the offseason. When you recover that quickly from an injury that significant, that means you’ve set up a pretty good foundation to recover like that.
“He’s getting closer. He’s doing a really good job so, I’m excited.”
Robert Jr. strained his right hip flexor heading to second base after hitting a ball off the wall in a game against the Kansas City Royals on April 6. Ever since, he’s been situated on the 15-day injured list for the White Sox.
For the South Siders, amid a franchise-worst 4-22 start to the season, it was a part of a rash of injuries sustained by the middle of their lineup while doing nothing more than just running the bases.
On top of Robert Jr’s injury, Yoan Moncada was placed on the 60-day injured list on April 12 with a left adductor strain he suffered while running to first base at the Cleveland Guardians, and Eloy Jimenez spent the first two weeks of April on the injured list recovering from a less severe version of the same injury Robert Jr. suffered — A right hip flexor strain.
Grifol was asked about how much the team runs and stretches before their game Saturday, and he reiterated the White Sox have dedicated staff who are actively monitoring each player’s needs, and doing their best to keep them in their best game shape.
“I don’t know what guys do around the league, I really don’t, but I know what our guys do. They wear their vests out there and they’re tracked. They get up close to max speed,” Grifol said. “We have people here that do this for a living and they track the numbers, they track their work capacity, their de-training, their over-training, that’s what they do.”
When asked about recovery times differing between players, Grifol said, “It’s not just makeup and mindset, that’s a big part of it. I’ve had a few surgeries in my life and they’ve always told me to take a couple weeks — Exercise — Get those muscles around the shoulders strong, get around the back strong, get the core strong and then we’ll go into the surgery.”
There’s a reason, right? You got to build something up to tear it down,” Grifol said. “In Robert’s case, I just think he did a great job this offseason working out and getting strong … And when he faces something like this, his body is in a really good position with the capacity that he had built up to recover quickly.”
While the club continues to deal with varying absences from their core three hitters, the White Sox continue to slide toward the bottom of baseball when it comes to hitting statistics.
They are the only club in Major League Baseball with a team batting average below the Mendoza line heading into Saturday at .198, while also finishing dead last in the MLB in total runs per game (2.5), home runs (16), on-base % (.271) and slugging % (.304).
First pitch is set for 6:10 p.m. Central Time Saturday against the Tampa Bay Rays, with rookie Jonathan Cannon set to take the mound for the White Sox.
