CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago White Sox reinstated Austin Hays from the 10-day injured list on Monday after the veteran outfielder was sidelined by a right hamstring strain.
The 30-year-old Hays got hurt while pursuing a flyball against Baltimore on April 6. Hays, who signed a $6 million, one-year contract with Chicago in free agency, is batting .219 with a homer and six RBIs in nine games this season.
“He’s one of our experienced guys, our veteran guys, that has been through every situation out there,” White Sox manager Will Venable said before the team's series opener against the Los Angeles Angels. “Our guys lean on for advice and wisdom and brings a ton of positive energy to our group.”
Hays tested his hamstring with two games at Triple-A Charlotte. The White Sox decided to end his rehab stint after Tanner Murray dislocated his left shoulder while making a diving catch against Washington on Sunday.
Venable said he plans to ease Hays back into the lineup “to make sure he’s in a good spot.”
The 26-year-old Murray was placed on the 10-day IL, but he is expected to be sidelined for four to six months.
“It’s significant. There’s a fracture in there he’ll have to have surgery,” Venable said.
Murray, a fourth-round pick in the 2020 amateur draft, was acquired in a November trade with Tampa Bay. He is batting .214 (6 for 28) with a homer and three RBIs in 13 games after making his major league debut on April 5.
“The news was definitely a little surprising,” Murray said. “Like I knew I didn’t feel good in the moment, but, yeah it was a little bit of a frustrating kind of trip to the doctor, I’d say.”
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Chicago White Sox left fielder Tanner Murray, second from left, is checked by a team trainer, left, after being injured during the 10th inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals in Chicago, Sunday, April 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Defense Department can require journalists to be escorted on Pentagon grounds while the Trump administration appeals a judge's decision to block its enforcement of a press access policy challenged by The New York Times, an appeals court ruled Monday.
The ruling by a divided three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit isn't the final decision in the newspaper's lawsuit over a new Pentagon press credential policy. But the panel's majority opinion said the administration is likely to succeed in showing that the policy's escort requirement is legally valid.
The panel granted the government's request to suspend an April 9 decision by U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman, who ruled that the Defense Department was violating his earlier order to restore access to the Pentagon for reporters.
Circuit Judges Justin Walker, J. Michelle Childs and Bradley Garcia heard the case, with Childs dissenting from the 2-1 majority.
“Reporters can hardly verify sources, gather information, or speak candidly with Department personnel with an escort looming over their shoulders,” Childs wrote.
Friedman found that the Pentagon’s new credential policy violated journalists’ constitutional rights to free speech and due process. He said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s team had tried to evade his March 20 ruling by putting in new rules that expel all reporters from the building unless guided by escorts.
Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell said it welcomes the panel's decision and looks forward to arguing the merits of its “full case” before the same panel. In a statement posted on social media, Parnell said unescorted access to the Pentagon has led to the “regular unauthorized disclosure of sensitive and classified national defense information.”
“Since implementing the current access policy, the Department has seen a meaningful reduction in these unauthorized disclosures, which when they occur can endanger the lives of service members, intelligence personnel, and our allies,” he wrote.
Theodore Boutrous, an attorney for The Times, said the panel's ruling is “a narrow, preliminary one" and “casts no doubt” on the strength of the newspaper's constitutional arguments.
"We look forward to defending the full scope of the district court’s rulings in The Times’s favor in this appeal,” Boutrous said in a statement.
President Donald Trump, a Republican, nominated Walker. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, nominated Garcia and Childs. Friedman was nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is joined by Adm. Brad Cooper, left, as he speaks to members of the media during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Thursday, April 16, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
