Yoan Moncada made his White Sox debut in 2017, Eloy Jimenez started his MLB career in 2019 and Luis Robert Jr. followed in 2020. Since then, the trio that was supposed to lead the White Sox to postseason success has played together in 161 out of a possible 558 games. Injuries have unfortunately plagued the White Sox and fans are now asking who is to blame?
It’s a difficult conversation to have and it is ridiculous to think that players are going out to the field and want to get injured. Of course they don’t. The White Sox are a poorly run franchise and that extends to the team’s training staff that has been much maligned. Because of that poor reputation it has been easy to blame the team when players are sidelined with the same type of injuries. However, it’s also difficult to ignore the fact that the same players continue to go down with the same type of injuries.
The White Sox officially placed Moncada on the injured list Wednesday after suffering a left adductor strain. The third baseman will be out for a minimum of three months and could very likely miss the rest of the 2024 season. Prior to his injury, White Sox manager Pedro Grifol told reporters that Moncada had been playing through some pain, specifically saying Moncada was dealing with an issue in his lower body.
A few hours later Moncada suffered a possible season-ending injury.
On the Pinwheels And Ivy Podcast, we discussed Moncada’s injury, Jimenez, Robert Jr., and why for at least one of these guys maybe they do deserve some of the blame for the constant injuries.
It mainly stems from ESPN’s Jesse Rogers publicly calling out players on the Kap & J. Hood Show in 2023, saying that from the people he’s talked to, Moncada and Jimenez are not known to be the hardest workers.
(Yoan) Moncada is no hard worker who is there for his team or his teammates… Eloy (Jimenez) is kind of happy go lucky but really isn’t a hard worker according to people I talk to. So shipping out those players would be a start”
On the other hand, these guys are human. Their bodies have failed them and once you’ve suffered a serious injury, which these three players have had, it is a lot more likely that more injuries follow and no matter what they do there’s nothing to stop it.
Check out this week’s Pinwheels And Ivy Podcast. More on the White Sox injuries, Pedro Grifol maybe being the worst manager ever and well trying to highlight the few positives from the first couple weeks of the season.
If I were them I would have hired my own training staff outside of the organization years ago to help stay on the field.
However, I’m not so sure they really care anyway.