Austin Hays Nearing Return for White Sox, But What About Kyle Teel?
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The Chicago White Sox have inched closer to welcoming back one of their outfielders.
According to Scott Merkin of MLB.com, Austin Hays will head to Charlotte to start his rehab assignments on Saturday. How many innings Hays is expected to see in Triple-A is unclear, but the Sox will surely be cautious. Hays was off to a solid start in his first year in black and white before suffering a Grade-1 hamstring strain. The injury occurred on April 6 in the opener against Baltimore, meaning the team has now been without the veteran for the last 15 games.
To the Sox's credit, they have been able to make up for Hays' absence decently well, especially as of late. Their offense has been humming over the last week-plus, with 15 home runs over the last week alone. The good news is that Hays should only help boost this side of the ball. The bad news is that making room for him in the outfield could actually be a slight challenge.
Fans aren't going to want to see Sam Antonacci sent back down to Triple-A or stripped of playing time. Normally an infielder, he has been sliding in at left field after getting some reps under his belt in the minors. Meanwhile, Everson Pereira has been easily one of the team's best players so far and needs an everyday role. This basically leaves Tristan Peters as the odd man out, which is palatable, but what does that mean for centerfield?
Is manager Will Venable going to be comfortable having Hays or Pereira in center regularly? Would he ever try Antonacci there? The other option would be to limit Antonacci's playing time and have both Hays and Pereira play alongside Luisangel Acuña again. Pereira could also spend more games at DH, but then there are questions about Andrew Benintendi's role. The domino effect will be interesting, but I guess it's a good problem to have for the White Sox right now.
So What About Kyle Teel?
Speaking of pesky hamstring strains, Kyle Teel has yet to take the next step in his recovery.
The second-year catcher suffered a Grade-2 hamstring strain during the World Baseball Classic. Expected to be a significant part of the Sox' lineup this season, it was a brutal blow for a squad hoping to build some early-season momentum.
All things considered, this has only continued to be the case as Teel has hit the far end of his return timeline. It's now been six weeks on the IL, and Bruce Levine noted that he suffered a slight setback last week. While Teel has made progress and been able to put in some work behind the plate, running remains the final hurdle. This is reportedly why GM Chris Getz did not throw out a date for Teel's rehab assignments to begin when addressing the media on Friday.
Getz also made it pretty clear that the plan will be to get Teel a fair share of work before he returns to the major league roster. When factoring in the missed time in spring training, there is a lot of catching up the 24-year-old needs to do.
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Elias Schuster is a sports journalist and content creator from the northern suburbs of Chicago. A graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he has covered the Bulls since 2019-20 and previously served as the editor of BN Bulls at Bleacher Nation. He has been the Publisher for Bulls On SI since December of the 2025-26 season. When he isn't obsessing over hoops, Elias spends his time obsessing over practically every other sport – much to his wife's dismay. He also loves strolling the streets of Chicago for the best cozy bar or restaurant to set up shop and write his next article.
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