Long time no see, Brandon Drury. The Chicago White Sox welcomed back the 32-year-old utilityman to a minor league contract 16 days after releasing him from the team.

Assigned to extended spring training for now, Drury seemed to be a shoo-in for the Opening Day roster before he was cut while injured. He put up a .410/.439/.821 slash line with three home runs and 11 walks in 39 plate appearances. Without shortstop Colson Montgomery, who was demoted to Triple-A in early March, and second baseman Josh Rojas, who began the season on the 10-day IL, Drury seemed to have a locker with his name on it before he fractured his thumb. But given tight roster space and his untimely injury, Drury was let go at the tail end of spring training.

There isn’t a roster position available for Drury, yet, but it seems only a matter of time before he’s promoted back to the majors. The Sox offense sports a .199 batting average, .268 on-base percentage, and .321 slugging percentage, which ranks fourth-, third-, and fifth-worst in the league, respectively. As evidenced by today’s 1-0 loss against the Guardians, the Sox are struggling to string together hits — or record any hits at all.

Once healthy, Drury will be plugged back into the Sox’s slumbering offense. Half of the Sox’s eight losses come in one-run games, proving that the Sox just need a little extra push to stay up to par. At the rate that the Sox’s offense is sputtering, Drury might not even need to be as productive as he was during Spring Training — the Sox might be willing to settle for his poor 2024 performance with the Angels.

With his ability to put the bat on the ball, Drury might provide the nudge needed to flip a few losses into wins while lighting a fire under his teammates to step up their hitting.

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