Welcome to the Pinwheels and Ivy Podcast, Chicago’s #1 Cubs and White Sox podcast. Hosted by Matt Zawaski, Aldo Soto and Kevin Fiddler. Follow them on Twitter @SouthsideZo, @AldoSoto21 and @KFidds. Join the conversation live on stream every Wednesday night at 8 p.m. as the trio recap all the latest news and rumors about the Cubs and White Sox and cover the biggest stories around MLB. Download and listen to every episode on your preferred podcast app and follow the show on Twitter @PinwheelsIvyPod.

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Packed episode this week on the Pinwheels and Ivy Podcast. We start off with the report coming from Hector Gomez, who said on Wednesday that White Sox left fielder Eloy Jimenez is coming back in two weeks.

SOURCE: White Sox OF Eloy Jiménez will return in two weeks.

Jiménez was expected to be out six to eight weeks after suffering a torn hamstring on April 23. pic.twitter.com/c1z26c6BxN

— Héctor Gómez (@hgomez27) May 11, 2022

Jimenez suffered a torn hamstring against the Twins on April 23, and as Gomez points out, the White Sox initial timetable for Jimenez’s return was 6-8 weeks. That would make his original return come sometime in early to mid-June. However, Jimenez says he’s recovering quicker than expected.

On Tuesday, Jimenez spoke to the media at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Via MLB.com.

Now he’s running and was even taking swings during early batting practice on Tuesday.
“I started to run a couple of days ago, and that is the main thing right now,” Jiménez said. “Other than that, I’m feeling pretty good. We just wanted to make sure I’m good to run and see what happens. “When I went down, I never thought nothing bad that I could not play. I was just a little bit frustrated because I was feeling good. And then that happened. Right now, I’m feeling pretty good with the result that we have.”

However, there is no way the White Sox will rush Jimenez back, right? Even with the offense continuing to lack consistency they cannot possibly jeopardize the long-term health of one of their most important players to come back a couple weeks early from a brutal hamstring injury.

Speaking of the offense, the White Sox went on a six-game winning streak last week, but the team is still being carried by the pitching staff. The White Sox have scored five or more runs in only 6 of their 29 games this season. Meanwhile the White Sox rank fifth in MLB with a 3.25 ERA, led by Dylan Cease, Michael Kopech and Lucas Giolito.

Oh by the way, we also talked about the embarrassing loss from Monday night against Cleveland. Kevin, a Cubs fan who also roots for the White Sox, claims that as a Cubs fan he can’t jinx the White Sox. This came up because he tweeted the following when the White Sox were up 8-2.

Seven in a row immediately following an eight-game losing streak. I love baseball. 😂#whitesox @SouthsideZo pic.twitter.com/BYfYZamtqA

— The Reverend KFidds (@KFidds) May 10, 2022

Both the White Sox and Cubs are finding it extremely difficult to get anything from their second base position, so we talked about the chances of either a call-up coming for the Cubs and whether or not Josh Harrison is in danger of being DFA’d.

The Cubs finally won a series, taking two of three from the Padres, but they left San Diego with more guys banged up. Nico Hoerner has a sprained ankle after running into the second-base umpire in the outfield as he was going out to be the relay man on Wednesday. It’s obviously a big loss for the Cubs and fans, as Hoerner has been one of the few bright spots this year and now he’s going to miss some time. The team is waiting for the swelling in his ankle to go down to determine how much time Hoerner will miss.

Cubs right fielder Seiya Suzuki wasn’t in the lineup the last two games after tweaking his ankle Monday night running to first base.

Prior to Tuesday’s game, Nick Madrigal was placed on the injured list with lower back tightness. He’s been struggling all year, so you at least hope that some time off in the next week or so will give Madrigal a mental reset.

As far as the rest of the Cubs roster, it’s difficult to really analyze everything that’s going on up and down this current roster because unfortunately the majority of these players do not matter in the long-term. Even with Willson Contreras, he’s the best hitting-catcher in baseball right now and one of the best hitters period in MLB. Yet, right now it only seems that his production is going to matter when it comes to trade talks.

A reminder that the Cubs have not engaged in any extension talks with Contreras. Yes, he has his flaws as a catcher and hitter, but you cannot say he’s going to be easy to replace. Just unbelievable that at no point the Cubs approached him to even kick around numbers for an extension.

Ian Happ is having a good season, looking comfortable in left field and being productive from both sides of the plate. He has one more year of team control. And hey, it’s been great to see Alfonso Rivas rake as he continues to get more playing time. So, he still matters. Suzuki, Madrigal and Hoerner matter, but they’re hurt right now.

Keegan Thompson and Justin Steele’s development in the majors is also important this year, but that’s pretty much it until we see a few more prospects getting called up later in the season.

Most of the relievers are going to be traded by August and a couple of starting pitchers too. So yeah, not a lot matters *right now* which sucks, especially when Cubs ownership and front office kept saying this team was going to try and be competitive in 2022.