With White Sox's offense floundering, is it time to give Colas another shot?
It's time to pop the hood on the White Sox again, dig around and see what the current ailments are.
Losing closer Liam Hendriks to a sore elbow after he was just getting back up to speed is a big blow, but at least it looks like the all-star closer is not going to need Tommy John surgery.
Both offensively and defensively, Tim Anderson is a shell of the player he was from 2017-21.
The shortstop had a finger injury last season and a knee injury this year, but Anderson's personal life has been the main reason his overall play has take such a drastic plunge.
Appearing on "The Pivot Podcast" Tuesday, Anderson talked openly about fathering a son outside of his marriage.
"I wanted to stay into like the real life, the real life phase of what I've created and try to handle it the best way I can and kind of more so keeping people out of the business," Anderson said. "Nobody really ever understood what I was going through when I was making those decisions or where my heart was or what was on my mind or how hurt I was or how lonely I felt."
Still married to his wife, Bria, the couple have two daughters. Anderson said he's been working hard to balance his life on and off the field.
The White Sox need Anderson to recapture his old form if they want to avoid a second straight underachieving season.
The same goes for starting pitcher Lance Lynn, who has the second-highest ERA (6.75) in baseball and has been horrendous in the first inning (12.21 ERA).
An ineffective offense is the Sox's biggest problem.
Getting Eloy Jimenez (left calf) back in the lineup against the Dodgers Wednesday night certainly helps that cause, but the overall attack has been lacking.
Through Tuesday's play, the White Sox were hitting .216/.273/.351 over their last 23 games and averaging 2 runs over their last 10.
If the Sox are looking for an outside spark, Oscar Colas is an obvious candidate.
Colas made the 26-man roster out of spring training and was projected to provide needed power from the left side of the plate.
The rookie never got it going and was optioned to Class AAA Charlotte in late April after hitting .211/.265/.276 with 1 home run and 7 RBI in 25 games.
"He needs to go play," manager Pedro Grifol said after Colas was sent down. "He's gotten an opportunity to get some experience here in the big leagues, figure out what this is about. He wasn't producing the way we anticipated, and that happens. This is a tough level to play at. Some guys get here and produce right away, some guys don't. Some guys need to go back down and continue to develop."
Colas is hitting well at Charlotte and he has a .293/.356/.439 slash line with 1 home run and 6 RBI over 10 games in June.
If the Sox brought him back, he'd take at-bats away from Gavin Sheets, Jake Burger and Yoan Moncada, but it's seriously time to shake up the offense.