The Royals have released the lineup for Friday night's series opener against the White Sox and Jose Guillen is not listed.
Guillen suffered a quad injury last Tuesday and hasn't played since. The early word was that it wasn't that serious and he could play soon, possibly as early as today.
It's still possible he plays tonight in a pinch hit role but it's also possible the Royals don't want to push it and would rather see him get better now and rest him through the All-Star break.
Can we draw any conclusions on the trade deadline from how they treat Guillen's injury?
Probably not. Not any hard conclusions, at least. You could argue that the Royals resting him could lend credence to those that say they'll keep him. Why would you rest him now if you were going to trade him in three weeks? That's a weak argument though.
So, for the first inning at least, there's no Guillen.
Here's the lineup for tonight: (1) Scott Podsednik (2) Jason Kendall (3) David DeJesus (4) Billy Butler (5) Wilson Betemit (6) Mike Aviles (7) Willie Bloomquist (8) Mitch Maier (9) Yuniesky Betancourt.
And of course Bruce Chen is pitching.