GLENDALE, Ariz. — Playing in the World Baseball Classic comes with risk, especially of the injury variety. Seeing third baseman Yoan Moncada, who has had more than his share of bruises, pulls and strains, representing Cuba isn’t necessarily a win-win situation for the White Sox.
But Moncada fulling “a dream” fueled a desire to prepare and train in the offseason in a way he believes will bode well for his health and performance in 2023 following an offensive season in which he batted .212/.273/.353 with 12 homers in 104 games.
“I did everything,” Moncada said through a translator. “Took better care of my body, exercises to be more athletic and move better.”
Because of the WBC games in March, Moncada is among Sox early-arrival position players, who are required to report Monday. First-year manager Pedro Grifol raved about Moncada’s mindset.
“I’ve been impressed with Moncada since I got hired,” Grifol said Thursday. “He’s returned every phone call, he’s answered every text. He got here early, he’s in shape. He’s hungry for information. He’s been available. He’s asked questions.”
Moncada suffered an oblique strain on the last day of camp last season and was out till May 8. He said he tried to come back too soon and never got untracked.
“But you know what? That’s in the past,” Moncada said. “That was last year.
“Everybody here has something to prove.”
Clubhouse reacts to Clevinger
Pitchers Kendall Graveman, Joe Kelly and Dylan Cease reacted after Mike Clevinger talked to teammates about MLB’s ongoing investigation into his allegations of domestic abuse.
“It takes a lot of [guts] to do something like that, right?” Kelly said. “I don’t know anything about the allegations. I don’t really keep up with all that. I know for him it’s probably weighing on his mind every single second or minute. You kind of have to just let things like these play out.”
“I thought it was very professional for Mike to speak in front of the team,” Graveman said. “Obviously I don’t have much to say about it, I want to see how the rest of it plays out, and Mike did an outstanding job of articulating and communicating with us yesterday, I will say that.”
“If he’s on the team, we are obviously going to treat him like a teammate,” Cease said.
“It definitely was a good idea [to stand up] because there’s been a lot of attention around it. It was good to address and kind of put it out there so there wasn’t that awkward tension.”
This and that
Tim Anderson and Luis Robert participated in workouts, early arrivals in part because they’re playing in WBC games in March.
*Robert said he wants to be recognized as Luis Robert Jr.
*Michael Kopech, bothered by knee soreness last season, was an early arrival at camp. He is “on pace” and “in a really good frame of mind,” Grifol said.
*Catcher Yasmani Grandal, another slowed by injuries in 2022, is “getting after it out there,” Grifol said.
“He’s not just getting after it body-wise, he’s getting after it with fundamentals, relationships and doing whatever he needs to do to have a bounce-back year.”
*Kendall Graveman on his role for 2023: “To rack up saves or holds, it doesn’t matter to me. I just want to get this team to the playoffs. You have that feeling after last year that we’re going to move in that direction, just to win baseball games. Whenever Pedro tells me to go pitch, I told him to his face, I’ll go pitch.”
