3 moves White Sox should still make after shocking Andrew Vaughn demotion

The Chicago White Sox are being forced to shake up the roster with a couple of veterans coming off the Injured List.

They already sent Brooks Baldwin down to Triple-A Charlotte after his struggles made him a candidate for a demotion when Austin Slater returned.

Joshua Palacios seemed like a clear DFA candidate to make room for Mike Tauchman's return, but in a shocking twist, the White Sox demoted both Andrew Vaughn and Tim Elko on Friday to make room for their returning veterans.

Tauchman and Andrew Benintendi are back with the team. Korey Lee will not be far behind.

You can hear the rationalization now. Elko was hitting .161 with a .188 on-base percentage and a wRC+ of 72. However, he was providing desperately needed power with three home runs and a .452 slugging percentage in 10 games.

Vaughn is finally going down too. For a brief moment, it felt like Elko's presence had an impact on Vaughn. The signal he could be replaced seemed to briefly motivate Vaughn. Once it became clear Vaughn was still going to get regular at-bats at DH, the fear of benching was no longer enough to get Vaughn out of his funk.

The Rangers had had enough of Jake Burger's struggles in April, and they sent the former White Sox first-round pick to Triple-A for a reset. It worked as Burger has a .958 OPS and three home runs since returning from Round Rock.

Sometimes, tough love is better than giving unconditional love. Maybe that will be the case for Vaughn. The demotion card should be played with the hope of getting through to Vaughn, and hopefully him coming back to reclaim his career so that he can be dealt in the offseason for something better than a low-level prospect.

But even with Vaughn being sent down, the White Sox front office still has more moves that they need to make.

The door is open to promote Kyle Teel

White Sox top hitting prospect Kyle Teel mashed two home runs for the Charlotte Knights on Thursday. He is red hot right now and riding an 18-game hit streak.

Teel's slash line over his past 10 games is eye-popping. There is nothing else for him to accomplish in the minor leagues to earn a promotion, but the club doesn't seem to have room for him.

The organization could argue they are taking the approach the Baltimore Orioles did with their hitting prospects, given the ties hitting director Ryan Fuller has to that organization. However, Teel now has more career minor league at-bats than Adley Rutschman.

Teel needs some reps in the outfield. He has better athleticism to play multiple positions than Edgar Quero. Once Teel is up, the team should want Quero and him in the lineup every day.

While Teel has played some outfield in college, it would be better to give him a refresher in games that do not matter in Triple-A. If the club drops him in the outfield without minor league reps, it would be like repeating the failed outfield experience with Vaughn and Gavin Sheets.

But if Vaughn and Elko are both in the minor leagues, maybe there is room to bring Teel up and have him DH when he's not behind the plate. Korey Lee and Matt Thaiss can play some first base.

Trading Matt Thaiss should be considered

This one gets tricky. Matt Thaiss is one of the few assets the team has that could fetch a prospect with a legit shot of making a big league impact. Thaiss is the one veteran addition made in the offseason that is working out.

However, it is unlikely a contender is going to jump the market right now for backup catching help.

Still, it would be worth seeing what they can get since that way the Sox can bring back Korey Lee or even call up Teel without the threat of demoting Quero.

The club is going to have make a decision on Lee soon with his rehab assignment set to expire soon.

It would be better to have Quero work his way through his current slump at the MLB level since there is not much left for him to do at Triple-A.

Lee is still a superior defensive catcher to Thaiss and younger. It may just be better in the long run to move Thaiss now and go with the youth movement behind the plate.

Bench or DFA Josh Rojas

When the White Sox signed Josh Rojas in the offseason, it made perfect sense.

He provided potential as a bridge player in case Miguel Vargas did not work out at third or Lenyn Sosa failed to be a serviceable second baseman.

A big toe injury suffered in Spring Training delayed his White Sox debut. While he was out, Vargas proved he can stick at third and be a core piece, and Sosa has been swinging it well.

There is just no room for Rojas on this roster. He is off to a brutal start. All he is doing is getting in the way, much like what Nicky Lopez did last season.

With Tauchman, Robert, Palacios, Benintendi, Slater, and Taylor all on the roster, there's no reason for Rojas to be playing corner outfield either. I don't want to see him getting regular at-bats anymore.