Gamethread: White Sox at Rangers

With a bunch of teams watching carefully

By far the most talked-about of the White Sox this spring gets his first game action today, as Dylan Cease takes the hill against the Texas Rangers and has an early audition for all the contending teams that covet his services. A couple of innings in early March don’t generally mean much of anything, but this could be an exception.

Meanwhile, if you cringe at the possibility Gavin Sheets’ two homers (and stolen base!) Thursday would mean we see way too much of him in 2024, cringe away, because he’s in right field today. And for further cringing, team shill Scott Merkin wrote today that Eloy Jiménez may see some action in right field this season as well.

Fortunately, both players aren’t in right field today — although having bother there might add up to one average RF. Eloy slides in at DH today, where he has had his usual awesome spring (1.286 OPS).

That lineup will be facing an actual 2023 MLB starter for the first inning or two — albeit one from the tail end of a rotation instead of the front — as Jon Gray gets his first action of 2024.

The Rangers are doing what they can to help Cease with his audition, with none of their big boppers in the lineup — Marcus Semien and Corey Seager have the day off, and Aroldis García is hurt.

First pitch is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. Central. No TV, but ESPN 1000 has radio coverage.