Slater joins fellow outfielders Andrew Benintendi and Mike Tauchman on the IL.
The White Sox’ outfield corps already was banged up.
Then Austin Slater tore the meniscus in his right knee.
Slater joined fellow outfielders Andrew Benintendi and Mike Tauchman on the injured list Saturday with the tear that he felt while preparing for the game Friday. Manager Will Venable didn’t have an estimate for how long Slater would be out or an answer for whether surgery would be required.
The Sox signed Slater, who has a .793 career OPS against left-handed pitching, to a free-agent deal early in the offseason, eventually pairing him with Tauchman to form a platoon in right field. But only two weeks into the season, that plan is out the window.
Tauchman will be on the IL for a couple of weeks, general manager Chris Getz said, with a strained right hamstring. Left field is similarly in Plan B mode, with Benintendi recovering from a strained left adductor, though Venable said he’s making “good progress.”
Meanwhile, several outfielders are being thrust into greater roles than anticipated. Venable said he will play Joshua Palacios “a lot” in right field, particularly when the Sox face right-handed pitchers. He listed Michael A. Taylor, Brooks Baldwin and Greg Jones, who was brought up from Triple-A Charlotte on Saturday, as others who will see time in the outfield.
Throw in catcher Korey Lee, who recently went on the IL with a sprained ankle, and infielder Josh Rojas, whose fractured toe has delayed his Sox debut, and the South Siders have been crushed by an early-season wave of injuries on the position-player front.
And that’s without mentioning all the pitchers who required Tommy John surgery during the spring. Bullpen arm Fraser Ellard hit the injured list Friday with a strained hamstring.
“The easy thing to do is to think that you’re the team that has bad luck,” Getz said Friday. “But if you look around the league and [at] what’s happening to starting-pitching staffs, pitching in general, injuries to certain players, it happens. That’s the importance of building depth in the organization. That’s something that we’ve been prioritizing through this rebuild.”
Taylor tosses three
Right-hander Grant Taylor, 22, the Sox’ No. 7 prospect, made his season debut for Double-A Birmingham on Friday night. He had three strikeouts in three scoreless innings.
Taylor hasn’t logged many innings since joining the Sox’ organization as a second-round pick in 2023, with injury recoveries limiting him to four appearances with Class A Kannapolis last season. But he dazzled in the spring, striking out nine hitters in four innings across three Cactus League appearances.
He might not have the high prospect ranking of fellow minor-leaguers Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith — part of the same Birmingham staff — but Taylor is someone worth keeping an eye on as the Sox try to build their rotation of the future.
Ramos off the IL
One player off the injured list is Bryan Ramos, the third-base prospect who generated some excitement last season. His time recovering from a strained right elbow is up, and he was sent to Charlotte after being activated Friday.
Ramos appeared in 32 major-league games in 2024, showing some signs of promise but putting up light offensive numbers overall. He hit .202 with a .586 OPS.
