Peter Bourjos knows there’s an opportunity to be seized in the White Sox outfield, but the 29-year-old is trying to take a relaxed approach this spring.
“Offensively I learned to just slow everything down and not try to do too much,” Bourjos said. “I put a lot of pressure on myself, and it hasn’t translated. Last year I got in a spot where I just tried to relax in the batter’s box and let everything go and what happened happened. I had success with that.”
A 10th-round draft pick by the Angels in 2005, Bourjos has played seven seasons in the majors with the Angels, Cardinals and Phillies. He hit .251 with 20 doubles, seven triples, five home runs, 23 RBIs, and a .681 OPS over 123 games while with the Phillies in 2016.
He signed a minor-league deal with the Sox in January because of the vacancy in the outfield after the Sox traded Adam Eaton to the Nationals in December.
For now, there’s an even wider opening as Sox center-field prospect Charlie Tilson recovers from a setback.
Tilson, who was coming back from a left hamstring surgery, suffered a stress reaction in his right foot over the weekend and will sit out impact activities for 10 days. The Sox don’t expect it to be a lengthy recovery, but they will still focus on some of their other center-field options in the meantime.
Bourjos, who has the most major-league experience in center of the Sox options, knew Tilson before this year because they both played in the Cardinals organization.
“I feel bad for him,” Bourjos said. “He has gone through a lot. … I talked to him this morning, just said, ‘Keep your head up.’ It sounds like it’s only going to be 7-10 days, and he’s going to be just fine. It’s just a matter of him playing well when he is healthy, and nobody’s going to remember seven days at the beginning of spring training.”
Bourjos already has some familiarity with Chicago.
Bourjos lived in the city until he was in second grade, when his family moved to Arizona. He still has some family in the area but he doesn’t remember much about it except the cold and snowy weather.
He said he’s glad his family moved to Arizona so he could play outside more growing up — and now he has a chance to train this spring near his home.
“I have two young kids, so packing them up and going to Florida wasn’t something I wanted to do either,” Bourjos said. “I evaluated what might be the best chance of making a team, and this is definitely one of them. It seems like a good fit on paper.”
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