Tauchman to finish 2025 on IL, will have surgery to repair right knee

NEW YORK – Mike Tauchman’s impressive first season with the White Sox came to an end Wednesday, when the left-handed-hitting outfielder was put on the 10-day injured list with a right knee meniscus tear.

Tauchman will have surgery Tuesday, with an expected five-week recovery period. By Tauchman’s best guess, the injury first took root when he was chasing down a ground ball in the right-field gap against the Cubs on July 26 at Rate Field.

“Just kind of got progressively worse and worse,” said Tauchman before Wednesday night’s 8-1 loss at Yankee Stadium. “And then kind of the tipping point was when we were in Minnesota [Sept. 1-4], [I] got a cortisone shot. That's when I missed like four days, trying to let that settle in. I wanted to be out there, so I kind of felt like the cortisone helped a little bit enough to kind of give it a shot.

“I was feeling OK, and the other night against San Diego, [I] made a play in the outfield sliding on it. It's kind of a similar play to how it initially happened. 
And I kind of felt it, not pop or click — I felt it on that play. Kind of progressively started to bother me throughout the game and then into the next morning. It was kind of feeling how it did before the cortisone, where things like walking around, going up and down the stairs, it was hard.”

In that Saturday loss to the Padres, Tauchman made three great plays in right, including a leaping grab into the foul territory netting down the right-field line. The discomfort didn’t change his hard-nosed style of play.

“If the decision is I'm going to play, then I'm going to play the way that I want to play. This league's too hard for me to go out there and play at any less than what I would consider my best effort,” Tauchman said. “I owe it to my teammates to give the most amount of effort I have.

“At this point, it's kind of just, [I] tried to go until I couldn't go any more, and it's disappointing. I wanted to finish the season with the guys, but ultimately [this is] probably the right call.”

Right-handed pitcher Wikelman González was placed on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to Sunday) with right elbow impingement, while right-hander Jonathan Cannon was recalled from Triple-A Charlotte as Wednesday’s bulk hurler. Outfielder Derek Hill was claimed off waivers from Miami, and he was expected to join the team at some point on Wednesday.

Tauchman, 34, slashed .263/.356/.400 with 17 doubles, one triple, nine home runs, and 40 RBIs over 93 games. He is providing assistance and guidance from the bench in his injured capacity, just as he did as a veteran player, and he wants to be back with the White Sox in 2026.

“Being able to pick a guy’s brain like that is pretty good,” White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery said of Tauchman. “He played with some really good players, and he’s really good at talking through approaches and things like that, simplifying things. He’s been around big league pitching for a little bit and been around the game for a while.”

“He did a really nice job really grinding and setting the tone for our group down the stretch here,” manager Will Venable said of Tauchman. “Tough to lose him because he’s a big contributor, but he had a great season.”