Why does the White Sox's top brass keep getting injured? A look into their tortured injury history

Why does the White Sox's top brass keep getting injured? A look into their tortured injury history originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

In this era of White Sox baseball, the team appears to be a phenomenon of sports medicine in the way they keep landing on the injury list.

And already this season --- 12 games in --- the White Sox's top brass of Luis Robert Jr., Eloy Jiménez and Yoán Moncada have all landed on the injured list in nine days.

What's more, they all got there by running to first base. Neither three injuries was provoked by contact. Robert Jr. strained his right hip flexor rounding first base; Jiménez injured his adductor on his way to first; Moncada strained his adductor and collapsed on his way to first base.

But the motif of injuries isn't new in the White Sox's saga. In 557 possible games (since 2020) of those three players taking the field together, they've only done so in 161 games. They've played just 28.9% of possible games together due to injuries.

Both Robert Jr. and Jiménez have tortured injury histories. In his first five major league seasons, Robert Jr. missed series of games for 16 separate injuries. For Jiménez, in his first six seasons --- 22 different injuries.

And it doesn't stop there, either. Tim Anderson missed considerable time in 2022, playing 79 games. Yasmani Grandal played just 99 games that year, too. Michael Kopech and Garrett Crochet have both needed Tommy John surgery --- a frequent necessity for modern-day MLB pitchers --- during separate instances, but with the White Sox.

The White Sox have seen turnover in their training room, hiring/firing different training staff amid their injury troubles. But even to this day, with most of the White Sox's contending core not in Chicago, they're still enduring injuries.

How do the White Sox continuously get injured?

That's a question that will likely never see an answer. Injuries can happen for all sorts of reasons: overuse, lack of preparation, lack of strength, or just simply fate. The fact that the injuries have piled up for years of this White Sox era, however, flags an alarming phenomenon.

So, who's to blame in this case? The former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen says it's on the players.

"A lot of people are like 'Who are they gonna blame?'" Guillen said on White Sox Pregame Live. "I say you gotta blame the players. It's nobody's fault. ... Players nowadays work out in the winter. They work out but I don't think they do baseball activities. That means baseball activities, running the bases. They do lift weights, hit. They don't do a lot of baseball activities that's why those guys get injured that much."

The White Sox's window of contention is seemingly over. In that window, they made the playoffs twice, winning just two games total and falling short in each first-round series.

A lot goes into that, but there's one thing that sticks out, certainly.

"Injuries have defined this era of White Sox baseball," Chuck Garfien said.

Click here to follow the White Sox Talk Podcast.