With Eloy Jiménez out, Luis Robert Jr. nearing return, what does White Sox’ outfield look like?

The White Sox’ outfield is crowded. And in seeming constant flux.

Luis Robert Jr. is nearing a return from his injury-induced absence, expected to begin a rehab assignment at Triple-A Charlotte on Tuesday after playing a couple more games in the Arizona complex league, where his Wednesday home run was one of the Chicago White Sox’ more viral highlights of the season.

That will bring some normalcy back to the outfield, anchoring Robert in center field and likely moving Tommy Pham to an everyday job in right. But with the DH spot suddenly vacant thanks to Eloy Jiménez’s latest trip to the injured list, the merry-go-round will continue to spin. Throw in a noticeable decrease in playing time for the slumping Andrew Benintendi, and there’s a lot to sift through.

[MORE SOX: Latest Eloy Jiménez injury stings as reminder of what might have been]

Jiménez’s presence in the lineup as the team’s designated hitter — a job he openly dislikes — sent Gavin Sheets, a natural first baseman who was off to a hot start this season before cooling off a tad, to more or less regular appearances in right field. That boxed out Dominic Fletcher, who the team traded for before the start of spring training and sent down to the minor leagues after an unimpressive start to his major league season.

But there have been other moonlighters. Currently, those additional outfielders include Corey Julks, recently added in a minor league trade, and Zach DeLoach, who made his big league debut after joining the organization in a trade the same day as the one that brought Fletcher aboard.

Julks has received only a few starts to this point, all against left-handed pitchers, but he’s made some plays, hitting a homer and robbing a homer in the same game against the Yankees and driving in two runs and stealing a base in a game against the Blue Jays. He’s got four hits, three walks, a homer and three RBIs in 13 trips to the plate.

“So far, what’s there not to like?” Pedro Grifol said of Julks on Thursday. “He’s shown some power, he’s shown an ability to steal a bag, he’s played good defense in both right and left. I’ve only played him against lefties, I’ll mix him in against some righties, as well. But so far, he’s done a really good job for us.”

Meanwhile, Pham has established himself as the White Sox’ best hitter since joining the team at their lowest point, after just three wins in their first 25 games. They’ve played 25 games with him and won 11 of them.

Benintendi has been on the other end of the spectrum, mired in a miserable slump that’s got his batting average below the Mendoza Line. Earlier in the season, his defense was just as noticeably off, and it’s all added up to make him, per the fWAR metric, one of the worst players in baseball through the first two months of the campaign. The three and a half years remaining on his contract, the richest free-agent deal in club history, mean he’s unlikely to budge from being a fixture of the lineup, even if that poor play has somewhat dented his everyday status.

Those are the pieces of the puzzle. How they get put together is up to Grifol.

While the manager might not have the center-field position to play around with once Robert returns to the big league club, he said Thursday that the White Sox would be without Jiménez for an “extended period of time,” guessing it could perhaps be similar to how long Robert has been out, if a bit shorter. That could allow Grifol to move guys around — and not just outfielders; notably, he has a catcher in Korey Lee who has earned more run — by utilizing the DH spot, which strikes as a natural landing spot for everyday at-bats for Sheets, but Sheets has rarely been a preferred option against left-handed pitching.

“I’m going to use them all,” Grifol said. “I’m going to match up as we see fit, both offensively and defensively. We have that DH spot that’s open now, so I’ll use that to rotate guys around and get guys off their feet a little bit and get them some rest. But I’m going to use them all.”

But just like how the outfield looked on Opening Day differs from how the outfield looked in late April to how it looks in late May, things can keep changing. And they likely will.

Should Pham get traded, that opens up an entire position worth of at-bats. Robert, with three years of club control remaining after this season, is far less likely to be dealt, it would seem, especially after Chris Getz described Robert as a player to build around back in the winter. But should Getz get an intriguing offer, you can bet he’ll listen. What happens if two starting outfielders get moved this summer?

Regardless of where Robert is playing come August, you would imagine that after the trade deadline is when the opportunity for young players will grow with a White Sox team plotting for the future. That might mean more focus on guys like Fletcher and DeLoach. That might mean another major league shot for Oscar Colás, who was the team’s right fielder coming out of spring training last year only to play so poorly that he earned two separate demotions to the minor leagues before the end of the campaign. Getz and Grifol have both insisted that Colás can earn himself another chance at the big league level, and late in the season would seem to be the perfect time for that.

And so, the only constant in the White Sox’ outfield seems to be constant change.

With Robert on his way back, that group should look something closer to how it was supposed to when the season began. But with Benintendi continuing to struggle and Jiménez on the shelf, the opportunities will not cease for others to make sporadic appearances out there.

And who knows, perhaps the White Sox will come across someone — be it Fletcher, DeLoach, Colás or someone unexpected like Julks — who they can see as part of their long-term plans. This rebuilding season is for learning those kinds of things.

Let’s see what the White Sox learn about their outfield over the next four months.

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