CHICAGO — The White Sox optioned first baseman Andrew Vaughn to Triple-A Charlotte, the team announced on Friday afternoon. Vaughn, 27, was hitting just .189 with five home runs in 48 games, leading to the surprising move.

“He’s been grinding,” White Sox general manager Chris Getz said in announcing the move. “We had a discussion yesterday and there’s a point in a lot of player’s careers where you’re better off going down to Triple-A for a little bit.”

This is Vaughn’s first demotion after spending five years with the big league club. He has a career .709 OPS, compiling a .699 mark last season before falling to .531 this year. He was simply going backwards in his career arc.

“I think he’s actually looking forward to taking a step back, slowing things down,” Getz said. “Obviously, it’s a different competition level, different environment … Knowing Andrew’s makeup, his determination, he’s going to get down there and get to work.”

Getz indicated Vaughn needs to “sync” up his lower and upper half as his mechanics have been off since the start of the season. His best years came in 2022 and 2023 when he hit a total of 38 home runs but he’s never had an on-base percentage higher than .321. The White Sox had high hopes for him after drafting him third overall in 2019 but his progress has been slow.

“I think that there are some mechanical adjustments that can be made,” Getz said.

The organization took an aggressive approach with another first-round pick this year when it sent prospect Colson Montgomery from Triple-A to it’s spring facility in Arizona, hoping a break from the daily grind would allow him a chance to make some swing changes. The move with Vaughn has a similar feel to it.

“It really is player development at its core and you don’t want to be reactive, you want to be proactive as much as you can,” Getz said. “The plan is to have Andrew Vaughn back here and we feel like that’s the best thing (in order) for Andrew to continue his career at the major league level is to take a step back right now.”

The team also optioned infielder Timothy Elko to Triple-A while activating outfielder Andrew Benintendi (left calf strain) and Mike Tauchman (right hamstring strain) from the injured list.