After going 0-for-14 since his return from the injured list, rookie third baseman Bryan Ramos was optioned to Triple-A Charlotte by the White Sox Thursday.
The Sox, who had an off-day Thursday, are expected to recall infielder Lenyn Sosa from Charlotte before opening a three-game series against the Brewers in Milwaukee Friday.
Sosa batted .132/.154/.184 in 12 games over 40 plate appearances from April 6-21.
Ramos gave the Sox (15-42) a needed spark during a recent 11-8 stretch but suffered a quad strain in a game against the Nationals on May 14.
He takes a .196 average with two doubles and two RBI in 15 games to Charlotte.
“At the beginning of this thing, we talked about kind of slowing it down a little bit on him, because he’s a young kid, he’s coming up here,” manager Pedro Grifol said after Ramos went 0-for-3 with a strikeout in the Sox’ 3-1 loss to the Blue Jays Wednesday. “Nobody knows anything about him. Then once you start creating somewhat of a sample size, they are going to start to make adjustments on you. He was hitting the ball really good up the middle, the other way. Putting some good swings. He was doing a really good job of using the whole field.
“They started pounding him in a little bit. It’s the natural reaction for a young kid to start covering inside, and then that kind of opened up the outer half. He was starting to get. They were starting to make adjustments to him.”
Grifol said Ramos worked some counts and made some good swings and looked comfortable at the plate.
“Adjustments, that’s all you gotta do,” Grifol said.
Sosa, in 249 plate appearances for the Sox over the last three seasons, is a .177/.200/.304 hitter with seven home runs and a .504 OPS.
In 16 games at Charlotte this season, Sosa is batting .284/.355/.627 with seven home runs and a .982 OPS. He homered for the Knights in his most recent game Tuesday.
