The White Sox, Adam Dunn on the verge of a four-year, $56 million deal - MLB

UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times reports that the deal between the White Sox and Dunn has been struck: four-years, $56 million, pending a physical. Wow.

What’s more: there are strong indications that the Sox will bring back Paul Konerko too. We’ll have an update on that shortly.

4:47 PM: Joe Cowley of the Sun-Times says “Yes, the Adam Dunn talk is very legit, and building steam.” Jon Heyman goes one step further, saying that the Sox are “closing in on a deal” for Dunn. Susan Slusser says that “it is looking very much like the White Sox will wind up with Dunn.” If you got three people as different as Cowley, Slusser and Heyman all saying the same thing, you have to figure it’s goin’ down.

I love Dunn on the South Side. That’s a home run park, kids. He could mash 50.

1:05 PM: Jerry Crasnick reports that the White Sox have “jumped in on” Adam Dunn. Which makes about eight kinds of sense.

For one thing, Kenny Williams clearly wanted Dunn over the summer, with most people thinking that the trade that landed them Edwin Jackson from the Diamondbacks was so that he could be flipped to the Nats for Dunn. That didn’t happen, of course, but Dunn is still what Williams wants: a big bopper.

For another thing, given how poorly Ozzie Guillen’s “I don’t want a regular DH, I want to be able to use Omar Vizquel there if I so choose” plan from last season went, landing Dunn addresses the biggest problem they had in 2010.

Finally, though ideally you’d want Dunn to be the DH, he provides some nice insurance in case the Sox aren’t able to retain Paul Konerko. Having both would be fabulous — if Jerry Reinsdorf lets Williams spend like that — but if you lose Konerko, you haven’t lost any on offense by having Dunn around.

Go for it Kenny!

PITTSBURGH — Oneil Cruz slowly made his way on crutches across the Pittsburgh Pirates clubhouse on Saturday toward a locker replete with a massive walking boot that the towering shortstop still uses to protect the left ankle he broke during an awkward slide home in early April.

The days when he’ll need to rely on the crutches are numbered. Ditto for the walking boot. The 24-year-old’s recovery remains on track, meaning he could return sometime late this summer barring any setbacks.

Given the way Cruz’s left leg rolled up underneath him as he collided with Chicago White Sox catcher Seby Zavala in the sixth inning of what became a 1-0 victory, Cruz will take it. He had surgery the next day and the team optimistically said it expected him to miss four months, a timeline it has not deviated from as his rehab reaches the halfway point.

“You never want to get hurt, obviously, but that’s part of the game and it happens to me,” Cruz said through a translator. “I’m just going to take it the way it is and get better as soon as possible.”

The Pirates have found a way to remain in contention in the NL Central even without their leadoff hitter and one of the more physically intriguing young players in the majors, one prone to testing the limits of StatCast. Pittsburgh entered play on Saturday at 29-27, a half-game back of Milwaukee for first place in a division where no one has been able to run away and hide.

The club has used a handful of players at short to fill in for Cruz, from Rodolfo Castro to Tucupita Marcano to Ji Hwan Bae to Chris Owings. None of them possess Cruz’s unique mix of size, power and speed. Yet they’ve been solid enough to help soften what could have been a devastating early blow to a club that is trying to climb back into relevance following consecutive 100-loss seasons.

Cruz has leaned on his wife and his children to help ease the mental sting of the first major injury of his still-young career. Watching longtime teammates Castro and Marcano – who came up through the minors with Cruz – have some level of success has helped. The duo is hitting a combined .264 with eight home runs and 28 RBIs.

“Every time I see them doing well, it makes me happy,” Cruz said.

Still, they understand they are placeholders for Cruz, who was poised to take a significant step forward following a tantalizing rookie season in which both highlights that quickly went viral on social media – and strikeouts – were plentiful. He worked seven walks in his nine games of the season, showing the kind of patience at the plate that was difficult to come by in 2022.

Cruz believes he is poised to come back stronger than he was when he went down, and the Pirates have been adamant that the hope is he returns this season no matter where the team is in the standings whenever he comes off the 60-day injured list.

While he’s eager to get back he’s also not trying to force things, saying several times he will stick to the recommendations of the medical staff. He has remained engaged, not missing a game of Pittsburgh’s somewhat uneven – the Pirates started on a 20-8 tear followed by an 8-18 skid through May – but overall promising start.

There are also no concerns – at least at this point – about any sort of lingering memories of the slide that derailed his season haunting him during his rehab.

“I should be good when I get out there because when I go out there I understand I’m not going to hesitate,” Cruz said. “I’m just going to go out there and do my best.”

Cruz’s appearance at PNC on Saturday coincided with the team giving out thousands of bobbleheads in his likeness.

Asked if the trinkets bear at least a passing resemblance to him, Cruz laughed.

“They did real good,” he joked. “Ugly, like me.”