CHICAGO – The White Sox placed starting pitcher Jonathan Cannon on the 15-day injured list Tuesday with a lower back strain.
Cannon threw 85 pitches across three innings with four hits, five earned runs, three home runs, three walks and five strikeouts in Monday’s 13-1 loss to the Tigers.
“I think it was clear just with how he was feeling that it was going to be an IL,” White Sox manager Will Venable said before Tuesday’s game. “Got some imaging done and they’re continuing to evaluate it. Yeah, it’s gonna be some time here, but we’ll continue to see how he feels before we put a timeline on it.”
Venable clarified that “some time” does not necessarily imply that Cannon will be on the injured list for more than a minimum stay. They are continuing to gather information, and Venable did not want to speculate on a timeline.
The injury first affected Cannon’s availability when he was scratched from his scheduled start on May 24 against the Rangers. But he returned on May 27 against the Mets, and pitched 5.2 innings with nine hits, five earned runs, two home runs, one walk and four strikeouts. Venable does not regret allowing Cannon to start that game.
“No, we have a process for evaluating a player, trust what he tells us,” Venable said. “He’s out there throwing bullpens and kind of a responsible ramp up to the decision point in which we decided that he was good to throw. So, fine about our process, again, also trusting the player that he was in a good spot. Jonathan is a competitor and wants to pitch and believed that he was in a good spot, and he just didn’t come out of this last one feeling very good.”
For a first-year manager like Venable, or a veteran manager, there’s a balance to find between trusting how a player says he feels and intervening.
“Every situation is different, and you just have to trust that you’re balancing it all the right way,” Venable said. “You know, I can’t say that I’m perfect in doing that, and I’m sure that every situation offers challenges that make it hard. I think ultimately when you’re watching a player out there doing his thing, you can tell. Sometimes guys are gonna try to hide it a little bit. Sometimes they’re gonna be transparent. So yeah, I think you take all the information in and you make the best decision you can.”
In his second major league season, both with the White Sox, Cannon has a 4.66 ERA and a 1.39 WHIP across 10 starts and 12 appearances. He logged 63.2 innings with 68 hits, 33 earned runs, 11 home runs, 21 walks, 51 strikeouts.
