Andrew Vaughn, the White Sox No. 1 prospect, per MLB Pipeline, is scheduled to make his Major League debut Friday night against the Angels and will not start in Thursday’s Opening Day contest at Angel Stadium.

Manager Tony La Russa announced during a Wednesday night Zoom that switch-hitter Leury García is his Opening Day left fielder and will hit sixth. Zack Collins will start at designated hitter and hit eighth.

“I’m going to try to get everybody on the active roster some at-bats, at least a game, in these four days,” said La Russa of the Angels series.

La Russa didn’t reveal the rest of his Opening Day lineup, but based on what was seen during Spring Training, it figures to be Tim Anderson, Adam Eaton, José Abreu, Yoán Moncada, Yasmani Grandal, García, Luis Robert, Collins and Nick Madrigal. Vaughn would face southpaw Andrew Heaney, whether it be at designated hitter or playing left field, where he started three games during Cactus League action.

Pujols gets respect from La Russa, Abreu

La Russa managed Albert Pujols from 2001-11, in the prime of the slugger's career with the Cardinals. On Thursday night, La Russa gets to manage against Pujols with the Angels.

“I hope he doesn’t play. That would be the easiest thing,” said a smiling La Russa. “If you had a crystal ball and told me he had three hits and we won the game, that would be fine with me because he’s a member of the family.

“But I’ve seen him, best 11 years in the history of the game. I’ve talked to him several times this spring. I’ve seen him, and he’s in great shape, he’s got plenty left. We just hope we can escape here before he shows it to everybody.”

Abreu, the reigning American League Most Valuable Player, looks at Pujols as a father figure, although he is only seven years younger than Pujols. They are good friends, with Pujols having influenced Abreu as a person and as a player.

“Absolutely. I've been following his career for a very long time, and I've been following what he does every time on the teams that he has played,” said Abreu through interpreter Billy Russo. “You probably won't find a person that can say something bad about him, something bad about his professionalism or how good a teammate he is. You always want to follow guys like him.

“He's a guy who deserves all of our respect and definitely my respect. He's been, always, by my side. An outstanding guy, an outstanding person, and I respect him. The qualities that we share, probably that we always want more, we always work to get more, to get better, to help people. And that's a quality that you only can find in good people like him. It's definitely a pleasure to be his friend, but for me, he's like a father.”

Pujols needs 38 home runs to reach 700 in the 21st season of his career. Abreu needs two to reach 200 in his eighth season.

Opening Day quotable

“I love this organization, I don’t want to play anywhere else and I’m looking forward to hopefully having a really, really good season this year.” -- Lucas Giolito, who is making his second straight Opening Day start, when asked if he wanted to be a White Sox for life

“We have high expectations. We have a very good team and even though I'm going to miss my Big Baby for a few months, I think we're going to be good because we are a talented team, and this is an exciting moment for us.” -- Abreu on high expectations for the season, while also acknowledging the absence of Eloy Jiménez, who had surgery Tuesday to repair a ruptured left biceps tendon and will be out 5-to-6 months

“You want to bring joy to the organization and fans. That’s probably the reason, and I mean this sincerely, [that] I never laugh in the dugout. First of all, the baseball gods are watching: Start laughing and they slap you. Secondly it’s a huge responsibility to make all those people happy. Until you get the last out in the ninth or 10th, always very respectful and very serious.” -- La Russa