White Sox supporting 1B Andrew Vaughn through tough start to the season

CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago White Sox are sticking with Andrew Vaughn — for now.

Vaughn is batting .160 after he went 1 for 4 with a first-inning single and two strikeouts in Tuesday night’s 7-2 loss to Milwaukee. The struggling first baseman has just two extra-base hits in his last 12 games.

While Vaughn is looking for a turnaround in the majors, Tim Elko is off to a strong start with Triple-A Charlotte. The 26-year-old first baseman is batting .356 with nine homers and 20 RBIs in 24 games.

“We’re more focused on supporting Andrew right now,” general manager Chris Getz said before the loss to the Brewers. “He’s been one of the more unlucky hitters in baseball. I know he wants greater results for the White Sox and for himself. And we expect more out of him.”

The 27-year-old Vaughn was selected by Chicago with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2019 amateur draft. He hit .246 with 19 homers and 70 RBIs in 149 games last year.

Going into the series opener against the Brewers, Vaughn had a .243 expected batting average and an average exit velocity of 91.6 mph — indicating he had been hurt by some tough luck.

“There’s some areas in which mechanically, that adjustments that need to be made,” Getz said. “But the results that he’s gotten at the surface level, we know that it’s a little deceptive.”

Vaughn’s slow start comes with the White Sox dealing with a handful of injuries, especially with their position players.

Josh Rojas went 0 for 3 with a walk in a rehab appearance with Charlotte on Tuesday night, and Chase Meidroth could return to the lineup by the end of Chicago’s six-game homestand. Rojas was sidelined by a right toe injury, and Meidroth is coming back from right thumb inflammation.

Catcher Korey Lee (left ankle) and outfielders Mike Tauchman (right hamstring) and Austin Slater (right knee) are another two to three weeks away, according to Getz.

“Korey has stacked up some quality days, feels pretty good,” Getz said. “He’s still in a running progression, but the swelling’s down. He’s getting more confident, which is an important step in recovering from an ankle sprain. He’ll be going on a rehab assignment in the near future as well.”

The White Sox are 7-22 after dropping the opener of a six-game homestand. They were 6-23 after 29 games in 2024, when they went 41-121 to break the post-1900 major league record for losses in a season.

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Getz is counting on a rich farm system to help the team emerge from its rebuild, but Colson Montgomery — one of Chicago’s top prospects — is off to a troubling start.

The 23-year-old Montgomery, a first-round pick in the 2021 draft, is batting .149 (14 for 94) with Charlotte. Getz said Montgomery is going to go to Arizona to work with Ryan Fuller, who was hired in November as the organization’s director of hitting.

“We are going to get some one-on-one work with him outside of kind of the Charlotte day to day and work on his swing,” Getz said. “We anticipate that to be a fairly short period of time but felt like it was appropriate. He’s on board.”

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb