With De Aza on shelf, Danks ready for chance
De Aza's temporary inactivity, retroactive to Saturday, means outfielder Jordan Danks has returned to the Major Leagues. Danks was reassigned to Triple-A Charlotte on Aug. 12, just two days after his first Major League homer produced a walk-off win for the White Sox over the A's.
Danks did nothing wrong during his first big league stint, a point reinforced by manager Robin Ventura and general manager Ken Williams. Hearing those positive words made Danks' transition back to the Minors a bit easier.
"It wasn't anything that I did that caused me to go down," said Danks, who batted .265 with three RBIs in 29 games with the White Sox from June 7-Aug. 12 but has reached base in 30 straight games with the Knights. "It was just a numbers issue, so that was easy to leave here with that thought. It's just good to be back."
"This was just another chance for us to fortify us a little bit more and now get Jordan some at-bats down at Triple-A," Williams said. "So when he [came] back, he can hit the ground running rather than sit here for the next six weeks and now we don't have any place to give him those at-bats."
Those De Aza plate appearances went to Dewayne Wise, who entered Tuesday having produced a .290 average with three homers and nine RBIs over 31 at-bats with the White Sox. Getting those extra at-bats in Charlotte kept Danks sharp, and the outfielder will try to maintain that through extra swings during early batting practice.
Ventura has little doubt De Aza will be ready to return when he's eligible. The team simply needed another bench player to go with Rey Olmedo and Tyler Flowers.
"You can't have 26 guys in the locker room," Danks said. "I just took it for what it was. I left here feeling good at the plate and did well down there. My confidence level is still there."