Who knows if a first-base controversy is coming with the White Sox’ promotion of Tim Elko from Triple-A Charlotte? But if there’s an in-season position battle brewing, it appears Andrew Vaughn rather would not give up without a fight.
Vaughn belted a home run in the second inning of the Sox’ 6-2 victory Friday against the Marlins. The blast came not long after news of Elko’s promotion, scheduled for Saturday, hit. He went hitless in his final three at-bats, including a bases-loaded strikeout to end the seventh.
Vaughn has struggled mightily this season, with a .188 batting average, a .537 OPS and four home runs in 37 games. The extended season-opening slump and Elko’s big offensive numbers had fans clamoring for a first-base swap for weeks.
It isn’t known how Elko’s promotion will affect Vaughn, though manager Will Venable said both players will be in the starting lineup Saturday. Given that the Sox don’t have a set designated hitter, it’s possible both guys might be in the lineup together on a regular basis. Vaughn was the DH on Friday for the ninth time this season.
Though it already might have been the case, considering the slow-moving nature of the Sox’ ongoing rebuilding project, Vaughn’s lack of production in the first month and a half of the season makes his future with the team as cloudy as ever.
The No. 3 overall pick in the 2019 draft, Vaughn was supposed to be a franchise cornerstone for a contending Sox team. Instead, the previous rebuilding effort didn’t yield a perennial contender, as hoped, and Vaughn has failed to be much more than a league-average hitter.
With Vaughn set for free agency after next season, it’s perhaps difficult to see him as part of the next contending Sox team, meaning general manager Chris Getz and the front office might have designs on turning him into a trade chip and injecting more talent into the organization this summer.
But that isn’t going to happen if Vaughn’s numbers keep looking like this.
‘‘[Vaughn has] hit some balls hard,’’ Sox hitting coach Marcus Thames said last weekend. ‘‘I know the numbers on the scoreboard don’t look right, don’t look good at all, and I get that. But he has hit some balls hard. The one thing we have been talking to him about is not to chase: ‘I know you’re hitting balls hard, and you’re not getting the success. Don’t try to chase hits.’
‘‘If he doesn’t try to chase hits and sticks with his game plan, good things are going to come for him.’’
We’ll see what sort of chance Vaughn gets to get things right and what Elko’s arrival means for one of the last vestiges of the previous rebuild.
Shoulder sidelines Meidroth
Rookie infielder Chase Meidroth was scratched from the lineup with a sore right shoulder. Venable said Meidroth hurt himself on a diving play Thursday in Kansas City, adding his status is day-to-day.
Meidroth already has been to the injured list once in his short major-league career, with a thumb injury that knocked him out for the last week and a half of April.
Meidroth, who was part of the Sox’ return package in the trade that sent left-hander Garrett Crochet to the Red Sox in December, is batting .245 with a .355 on-base percentage through his first 17 big-league games.
Montgomery mashing
Braden Montgomery, another piece of the return in the Crochet trade and the Sox’ No. 5 prospect, is off to a strong start after being promoted to Class A Winston-Salem toward the end of April.
In 10 games with the Dash, Montgomery is batting .405 with three homers, five doubles and 11 RBI. He has four consecutive multihit games and only has gone hitless once since joining the team.