DETROIT — Outfield prospect Luis Robert’s steamroll through the Carolina League with the White Sox’ advanced Class A affiliate at Winston-Salem has been temporarily stalled with soreness in his left hand.
Robert is putting up phenomenal numbers for the Dash, hitting .475/.530/.915 with six homers, three triples, four doubles and 18 RBI in 14 games. After going 1-for-2 Friday at Potomac, he was removed from the game for precautionary reasons with a contusion and is day-to-day. There was no incident in that game causing the soreness.
Ranked No. 4 among Sox prospects and 39th overall my MLB Pipeline, the 21-year-old’s playing time has been limited by various injuries since he was signed out of Cuba in May 2017, including one to his left thumb during spring training. He went on the Wintson-Salem DL twice last season with a sprained left thumb and was limited to 50 minor league games between the Arizona league and two Class A levels.
A promotion to Class AA Birmingham is coming — seemingly sooner rather than later at the rate Robert has performed — although it’s unknown if the thumb will affect the timing on that.
*In other top prospect news, right-hander Zack Burdi and outfielder Luis Basabe are joining low Class A Kannapolis Monday. Basabe broke a hamate bone during spring training and Burdi is bouncing back from Tommy John surgery. Burdi, a first-round draft pick in 2016, pitched in seven games in the Arizona Rookie League and five in the Arizona Fall League. He was not invited to major league camp, and then was slowed by a lat strain early in spring training.
Giolito on mend
Lucas Giolito has played catch every day since straining his left hamstring in a game against the Royals Wednesday, “doesn’t really feel much of anything” and remains hopeful of missing only one start, but that seems optimistic knowing the Sox won’t rush him back into the starting rotation.
“With a hamstring they’d rather take a little time and get it back to 100 percent and not have to worry about it rather than rush it back and it can turn into something way worse,” Giolito said Sunday. “Just being patient with it.”
Giolito was hopeful of being cleared to throw a side session in the next few days.
“I knew it was going to be a minor thing from the get-go,” he said. “Because even right after I hurt it, when I was throwing I threw those three [warmup] pitches before I came out of the game, and I was still able to throw north of 90 miles an hour. They didn’t want to keep me in there because I would have had to alter my mechanics and keep my front knee soft.”
Rotation alterations
Giolito’s injury and a rainout Saturday prompted a reshuffling of the starting rotation. Manny Banuelos comes out of the bullpen to start Monday and Ervin Santana was skipped to Wednesday, allowing left-hander Carlos Rodon — with an off day Thursday — to pitch on six days rest against the Tigers at home Friday.
Santana was skipped to keep Lopez on four days rest Sunday. Santana now pitches on eight days.
“If I keep ‘Los [Rodon] on the [fifth] day [Wednesday], Ervin’s slot wouldn’t come back until later on,” Renteria said. “We wanted Lopey to go ahead and stay at his day.”
This and that
Banuelos said he’d be pleased with five good innings Monday. Banuelos threw 61, 49 and 43 pitches in his last three relief appearances, all three innings or more.
