After back injury, Moncada showing what he's capable of producing

CHICAGO – Since Aug. 8, Yoán Moncada has been one of the White Sox top hitters.

That fact should not be surprising for a talented switch-hitter capable of hitting 25 home runs, hitting over .300 and drawing more than 80 walks in a single season as he has done previously. It’s also not surprising how Moncada’s highly bothersome back issue started to get better just under two months ago when this hot streak developed.

Moncada had one of Chicago's two home runs on Thursday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field in a 3-1 victory over the D-backs. He has a slash line of .313/.353/.535 in that span (40 games), with 11 doubles, seven homers and 23 RBIs.

Not too shabby of a showing, especially considering there was a point a few weeks prior to the start of his offensive excellence where Moncada thought the back issue had brought a premature close to his campaign.

“There was a moment in the season when I thought my season was done,” said Moncada through interpreter Billy Russo. “But I never gave up, kept working, did the exercises from the trainers that they gave me. Thanks to that I was able to come back.”

“I really believe the injury affected him,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “It just didn’t affect him while he was hurt. It affected him while he was trying to come back and play. The first time around, he was still hurting to the point where I had to protect him against left-handed pitching, and then little by little that thing just started going away.”

Moncada was an all-tournament selection while playing for Team Cuba in the World Baseball Classic and went 12-for-30 against Houston, San Francisco and one game against the Pirates to open the season. It was during a three-game set against the Pirates on April 9, though, where Moncada’s back pain became too great to play through and he was out of action until May 12.

It was the sort of pain radiating into his glute and hamstring, really affecting his performance hitting right-handed. After an absence from June 14 through July 24, Moncada came back and started to get healthy.

Now, the White Sox have high hopes for this same sort of top-flight performance in ‘24, when Moncada is owed $24 million and all but guaranteed to be stationed at third base for the South Siders.

“If I’m healthy I’ll be able to do more than I’ve shown,” Moncada said. “Injuries have been something I’ve had to deal with throughout my career but hopefully all of that is in the past. If I stay healthy I can do what I know I can do.”

“We are going to really push his whole game and I think he’s capable of doing special things,” Grifol said. “It’s just a matter of him being healthy and us pushing the right buttons and making sure he gets the days off when he needs them. And just pushing the right buttons to keep him top of his game the whole year."

Grifol characterized Moncada’s defense at third base as elite, while also talking about his capability of stealing 20 bases in a season despite having 31 total over eight years. It’s incumbent upon Moncada, who homered in the fourth after Andrew Vaughn’s two-run blast in the second, to get himself as physically prepared as possible to avoid injuries that have plagued him.

“Just work hard every day,” Moncada said. “And what I mean every day is once I’ve started I need to work harder every day. Put my body through the best for the offseason.”

Thursday’s victory ended a 10-game White Sox losing streak against the D-backs, dating back to 2014. They have an overall record of 61-98, meaning they need to win the weekend series against the Padres to avoid 100 losses.

Goals for next season will be considerably higher coming off this year’s major disappointment.

“We need to just stay healthy,” Moncada said. “And play the game the way we can play, to our best capabilities. If we do that, things are going to go our way.”