Grifol, White Sox carry on after nightmarish start

CLEVELAND -- White Sox manager Pedro Grifol could only smile.

What else are you going to do?

It wasn’t a happy smile, not when yet another key component of your already struggling team has gone down.

For three-to-six months.

That was the jarring revelation Wednesday for third baseman Yoan Moncada after he suffered a left adductor strain the night before.

The news couldn’t have been worse. Six months would mean the season, the last of Moncada’s five-year, $70 million contract paying him $25 million this season.

“It’s a beautiful day, we’re alive, we’re breathing, we’re in the big leagues,” Grifol said. “Another day of life, baby.”

A day in the life of a manager that got even tougher. The Sox entered Wednesday's game against the Guardians with a 2-9 record, and in 11 days, Grifol lost Luis Robert Jr. for at least six weeks with a Grade 2 right hip flexor strain and Eloy Jimenez with a left adductor strain. Jimenez was hurt during the third game of the season and is eligible to come off the 10-day injured list when the Sox host the Reds this weekend, but, while showing small gains each day, won’t be rushed back.

When he’s ready to play, a minor league rehab assignment will likely precede Jimenez’ return to Grifol’s lineup.

“We certainly don’t want to rush something and put him in a position where we re-aggravate this thing,” Grifol said.

And so Grifol goes to battle with a lineup that only a manager could love.

“I would have never -- there’s just no way to think that’s going to happen or to even envision something like that to happen,” Grifol said of losing the core of his lineup less than two weeks into the season.

“It was painful for me to watch,” he said of Moncada going down in a heap before he reached first base. “He was obviously in a lot of pain. It’s just sad to see these guys go down after putting in so much work in the offseason and spring training and putting themselves in a good spot to have a really good year. I know how much work he’s put into this.

“And then for us as a team, these are 2-hole hitter, 3-hole hitter, 4-hole hitters.”

“It’s tough,” first baseman Andrew Vaughn said. “It’s gotta be next man up, though. That’s how this game is.”

Moncada has been hurt before, as have Jimenez and Robert. If the worst-case scenario unfolds and Moncada is out for the year, he will have played 104, 92 and 11 games in his last three years as a Sox.

With a hood over his head outside the visitors clubhouse, he was a picture of sadness Wednesday. He said it “felt like something broke” running down the line.

Moncada has been sidelined with oblique, back and hamstring injuries in the past.

“I've never been out for that long,” he said through translator Billy Russo. “That was the worst pain I’ve felt in my career.”

Far, far beyond the mild soreness Moncada had been playing through in recent days.

“I was dealing with discomfort in the same leg but not in that specific area,” he said. “It was close.”

Grifol didn’t speculate on whether the injury was related.

“It’s really not known,” he said. “It wasn’t the same thing, but who knows how one affects the other. I’m not capable of answering that stuff, I’m not an expert in that field. All I know is that he’s going to miss a significant amount of time and I hurt for him.”

And that he still has 26 players to lead through what was going to be a challenging season before the injuries.

Asked Tuesday about possible external additions to the lineup, general manager Chris Getz on Tuesday said it was “easier said than done.”

Grifol said, “I’m not focused on that right now. I’ve got 26 guys here trying to win every single night. That’s not even fair for me to think about. They’re giving us their very best in this clubhouse and on the field to win every single night. That’s all I can ask for."