Chicago White Sox activate Tommy Pham from the 10-day IL, demote Jordan Leasure

Tommy Pham is back from the 10-day IL while Jordan Leasure was demoted to the Triple-A.

/ Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports

Tommy Pham is back from the injured list while Jordan Leasure is going to Triple-A the Chicago White Sox announced.

Pham has been out with a sprained ankle since June 2nd after a terrible send late in a defeat to the Milwaukee Brewers. Getting Pham back is the good news as getting his professional bat back to go along with Luis Robert Jr's recent return to the lineup should boost the offense.

Hopefully, Pham can return to the hitter we saw when he debuted with the team. Pham's slash line over the 15 past games was .154/.214/.154. He hit .288 with a .778 OPS in May.

With Corey Julks' heater wearing off, adding Pham back to the lineup should make up for his recent downturn. However, Andrew Benintendi is back from the IL as well, so it means his weak OPS and defense are back in the lineup.

Zach DeLoach was sent back to Triple-A Charlotte. The other roster move the Sox made was Jordan Leasure was demoted and Chad Kuhl was brought up.

The rookie bullpen arm had a great spring training and the first two months of the season. He has had a rough June with a 10.80 ERA. He was part of the bullpen's meltdown on Tuesday when gave up a walk-off grand slam to Cal Raleigh.

The bullpen blew leads or failed to protect leads or keep the game tied in 12 of their past 13 games. So some players need to be held accountable. It started with Tim Hill getting designated for assignment and now Leasure is the next player.

It would have been nice for John Brebbia to get DFA'd or Michael Kopech traded. Brebbia is pitching better this month and Kopech will be traded in due time as there is significant trade interest in revitalizing his career.

Kuhl is a seven-year veteran with a 4.98 career ERA. It is an interesting decision to go with a veteran who has struggled to get outs over a young arm going through some struggle at the big-league level for the first time.

Maybe the Sox think they can unlock something in Kuhl and then flip him at the trade deadline. That seems like the only logical explanation otherwise Leasure might have fallen out of favor. It seems like a foolish idea on course with this franchise thinking Mike Clevinger has value on the trade market.

Otherwise sending him to Triple-A is just like the Sox sending Nick Nastrini back to the minors when all the pitcher needs to do is work on his command. However, at least the front office replaced him with Drew Thorpe. That move at least makes sense to send one rookie struggling with his command down to be replaced with another rookie to see what he can do at the big-league level.

This one does not make a ton of sense to replace Leasure with a veteran who has had issues doing his primary job function. Something needed to be done with the bullpen as it has cost the team wins and turned this season downward in a historically bad fashion.

feed