SEATTLE — The White Sox made five roster moves before they opened a three-game series against the Mariners Monday. The most significant were reinstating third baseman Yoan Moncada and left-handed reliever Aaron Bummer from the injured list.

Outfielders Adam Haseley and Mark Payton were returned to Triple-A Charlotte after brief stays with the big club.

Moncada landed on the injured list on August 27 (retroactive to August 26) with a strained left hamstring. He has been a disappointment offensively, batting .197/.269/.313 with seven home runs in 80 games this season, but has been one of the team’s better defensive performers.

Bummer is coming off a lat strain after going on the IL June 12. He has appeared in only 20 games, posting a 3.06 ERA with 21 strikeouts in 17 2/3 innings. He appeared in three rehab games at Charlotte.

The Sox also outrighted right-hander Tobias Myers to Charlotte.Myers five starts with was claimed off waivers from San Francisco on August 2 and made five starts for Charlotte.

The 40-man roster remains at 40.

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Two of the Bears’ top four wide receivers practiced Monday, setting the table for them to play in the team’s season opener Sunday against the 49ers.

Byron Pringle, who has missed almost all of the preseason because of a quad injury, and Velus Jones, who has been in and out of practice with undisclosed injuries dating to the start of preseason games, both participated in a light practice. So did center Lucas Patrick, who needed surgery after breaking his thumb on the second day of training camp.

The Bears signed Pringle to a one-year, $4.125 million contract in March. They drafted Jones in the third round; he played against the Seahawks but not in the Bears’ other two preseason games.

Wide receiver will be one of the Bears’ biggest question marks when the season begins. General manager Ryan Poles said during the NFL Scouting Combine that he wanted to give quarterback Justin Fields a receiver to rely on when times got tough. The Bears added receivers with thin resumes: Equanimeous St. Brown, Dante Pettis and Ihmir Smith-Marsette round out their receivers’ room. The Bears claimed Smith-Marsette last week from the Vikings.

Receivers N’Keal Harry, David Moore and Tajae Sharpe are all on injured reserve, but only Harry is expected to return. Harry had surgery on his high-ankle sprain last month.

The Bears could play Patrick at either center –or, if his right hand is encumbered by a cast, guard. Head coach Matt Eberflus said that decision will be made Wednesday or Thursday.

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A Chicago Bears playoff run is a real possibility. Don’t laugh, just look at all the areas that they have improved.

Throughout the Chicago Bears 2022 season realignment there has been a constant stream of negativity in the media and professional pundit class. Sports Illustrated recently predicted the Bears would go 3-14 and finish last in the NFC North. While not surprising, this has gone beyond what makes sense.

Yes, the Bears replaced a failed regime that left the team in a bad place both in term of personnel and in draft capital and salary cap space.  And yes, some of the initial moves by the incoming regime have included missteps such as the failed Larry Ogunjobi signing and a messy holdout/hold in by outside linebacker Roquan Smith. But the Bears were not at the bottom of the league in 2021 (6-11 record) despite massive dysfunction.  The change in leadership can only be positive.

Playoff Run? Give Hope a Chance

I’m optimistic over the Bears outlook. Why? First of all, it has become abundantly clear of the massive failures of the previous regime. Matt Nagy stubbornly tried to install a system—not his own but his interpretation of the Kansas City offense without regard to the personnel he was working with and without an understanding of play calling and when to deploy each element of the system. He did not provide Justin Fields first team snaps in camp and then thrust him into a starting position after Andy Dalton got hurt. Nagy had no concept of game situations or the capabilities of his offensive line, so he consistently put his team and Fields in poor situations.

General Manager Ryan Pace fell in love with certain picks and overspent. The Mitch Trubisky pick may have been the worst ever. If he was so enamored with Trubisky, he could have traded down not up for him and added picks instead of subtracting them.

The sad and ironic part of this is that Pace did a good job finding talent in the mid and late rounds but would part with those picks like candy. As soon as he settled on a guy, he seemed to immediately assume everyone else was thinking the same thing, panicked and offered a fourth-round pick with a third rounder to move up a couple of slots in the third round. Think what he could have provided Trubisky with if he kept those three picks he parted with to move up one slot?

The bottom line is that although Pace had some wins in later rounds, the clear dysfunction hurt the overall product and his exit can only help.

WHY MUST BEARS TAKE STEP BACK?

While those panning the current Bears know all this, they seem intent on the Bears taking a step back, not a step forward despite the necessary purge. I understand that the new regime has a lot to deal with, but there is talent that has been underutilized and the new leadership team looks much more professional.  Yes, they lost some important pieces in Allen Robinson, Khalil Mack and Akiem Hicks, but Robinson was largely ineffective, and Mack and Hicks were often injured so they really didn’t lose much production.

Folks in sports talk radio like to praise the professional way Matt Eberflus has conducted this Bears camp and then dismiss it as “a very low bar.” It’s not. The Bears weren’t the only dysfunctional team out there. And many of those dysfunctional teams had talent; some made the playoffs. So, running an efficient offense with few penalties, having plays designed to exploit the talent of your personnel and solid organization is not a small thing. It could be a difference of two to three wins. That takes a poor team up to a mediocre team and a mediocre team up to a wildcard contender. Bears were a mediocre team with bad coaching, not a terrible team in 2021.

Potential Stars of Bears Playoff Run

Justin Fields is a talented quarterback. Darnell Mooney is a talented receiver. David Montgomery is a strong and underrated running back and a potential team leader. Cole Kmet looks to be a solid tight end and potentially more. The misuse of Montgomery may be the biggest error of the previous regime. Any fan knows that when the Bears got stuffed on two running plays, Nagy would pretty much abandon the run. That made everything else more predictable and more difficult to execute. Eberflus won’t make the same mistake.

Those pundits down on the Bears are already contemplating getting rid of Montgomery at the end of this year.

Bear RB David Montgomery Could lead Surprise Playoff run

This alone, should tell you why you should ignore those voices, they have no original thoughts. The prevailing wisdom today is that running backs are a dime a dozen and none deserve a second contract. David Montgomery has talent. David Montgomery is a leader.  Let’s see what he does in 2022-23 before we decide he’s not worth a new contract. I think it will be a breakout year. While it is not ideal, given the lack of depth at receiver, Montgomery is likely to lead the team in rushing and receptions.

That is the frustrating part about the dour outlook, here Montgomery finally has an opportunity to thrive in a system that values the run game and most pundits in town are shipping him out at the end of the year.The hand wringing over the offensive line has gotten quite out of hand as well. The simple fact is that they drafted some promising lineman last year that came with some questions marks, but added numerous picks and solid veterans into the mix to compete this year. The line will be much improved based solely on the obvious emphasis the new regime has placed on it.

And that is just the offense. The Bears appeared to add some interesting playmakers on defense that could tilt the field in the Bears favor by producing turnovers, ala 2018. Creating turnovers is a focus for Eberflus and turnovers, or the lack thereof, is the biggest difference between the Bears 12-4 2018 campaign and every year since.

With everyone looking two years out in an attempt to justify a hopeful outlook, they may be ignoring an entertaining and perhaps surprising 2022 campaign. Let’s give this team a chance.

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One simulation isn’t high on the Chicago Bears

The over/under for wins for the Chicago Bears is 6.5 heading into the season. The Bears will face challenges with a new coaching staff and depleted roster. The national media has hammered the Bears all off-season about their lack of elite talent on the roster. A simulation of the Bears season doesn’t think they’ll make the over on the 6.5 spread.

The Bears haven’t made enough moves to change that narrative. General manager Ryan Poles has added some pieces to the roster recently. But it’s not enough to tip the scales in the Bears’ favor where one could consider them a playoff contender. With as much dead cap space as the Bears have in 2022, it’s not surprising Poles would punt on the season.

The Athletic recently published simulation results they did for each NFL team. The simulation ran each regular season game 100,000 times to project how many games each team might finish with. The Bears averaged a 5.9-win total for the 2022 season. Here’s what The Athletic writer Kevin Fishbain had to say about the results:

This is probably fair considering the litany of questions facing the 2022 Bears. Though it’s worth noting that the teams ranked 32nd, 31st, 28th, 26th and 25th are all on their schedule, those teams might all be looking at the Bears as a “win.” If quarterback Justin Fields takes off and head coach Matt Eberflus’ defense becomes a takeaway machine, they’ll go over. But the personnel alone makes this number seem right. — Kevin Fishbain

The Chicago Bears can prove doubters wrong starting this Sunday

The Bears have taken a lot of crap like this all off-season and during the preseason. It’s up to the Bears to change the narrative. They have an opportunity to take advantage of an inexperienced quarterback in Trey Lance when they play the San Francisco 49ers this Sunday.

The Chicago Bears’ starters will need to improve from the preseason if they want to win more than six games this season. It will require a huge effort by quarterback Justin Fields to overcome the Bears’ offensive line and wide receivers. If they can reach seven wins with this team, look out for them next season when they have some money to spend on talent.

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A large sense of anticipation swelled Sunday as the White Sox were 120 feet away from overtaking the Twins to complete a three-game sweep and moving closer to the top of the American League Central.

But those hopes deflated rapidly when Leury Garcia bunted into a fielder’s choice that prevented the tying run from scoring, and Romy Gonzalez struck out with the go-ahead run at second base to end the seventh inning.

That realistically ended the Sox’s chances of extending their winning streak to five games, as they fell to the dreaded but familiar .500 mark following a 5-1 loss.

Jose Miranda’s two-run double in the ninth sent several of the 32,305 fans to the exits, but there was noticeable resignation throughout the stands after three consecutive hits failed to generate more than a lone run.

As a result, the Sox (67-67) must regain their long-awaited momentum during a seven-game trip to AL playoff contender Seattle and Oakland with 28 games left.

They’re expected to regain the full services of center fielder Luis Robert, whom acting manager Miguel Cairo wanted to stay away from because Robert didn’t feel completely ready due to a sore left hand that has prevented him from batting in a game since Aug. 25.

Without Robert, Cairo felt comfortable with Garcia facing flame-throwing Jhoan Duran. Garcia swung and missed on a 99.8 mph fastball before bunting a 99.5 mph pitch to the mound, where Duran fielded and threw home to pinch-runner Adam Haseley.

Gonzalez who hit a three-run homer Saturday, fouled off a 101.9 mph 0-2 pitch before striking out on a 89 mph curve.

“Sometimes you got to go for it,” Cairo said of the safety squeeze bunt attempt. “It was a good chance to do it. (Garcia) did the job. It was just a little to the middle, but he did his job.”

Cairo said he let Garcia know in advance of his intentions

“And I felt comfortable with Leury in there in that situation,” Cairo said. “He’s a fastball hitter, and I know he could bunt or put the ball in play. I was good with that.”

Cairo seemed just as confident about the Sox’s forecast, based on their recent play.

“We play the way we played this week, watch out,” Cairo said. “We’re going to have a pretty good chance, and the guys are excited about going out there.”

The Sox’s traveling party wore NFL jersey as part of their football-theme trip, and pitcher Lucas Giolito believes Thursday’s players-only meeting fostered a much-needed bond and sense of urgency.

“Coming together and playing hard, playing focused baseball – when we do that, it brings up the energy,” said Giolito, who allowed a two-run home run to Carlos Correa that snapped a scoreless tie in fifth.

“It brings up the confidence in all situations, whether we’re down, up, doesn’t matter, tied. Giving it our best effort for nine innings every single day, that’s what I’ve been seeing, that’s what we’ve been feeling. If we stay on that track, we’ll be in a good spot. Just keep winning. Try and win.”

Before the game, Cairo said he continues to talk daily with manager Tony La Russa, who is in Arizona undergoing tests with his doctors.

“He’s doing good,” Cairo said. “Hopefully we get to see him soon. We’re going to wait and see.”

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