NEW YORK — Life without Munetaka Murakami hasn’t been easy for the Chicago White Sox.
Anytime you lose your top slugger, it’s bound to have a residual affect on the rest of the lineup.
But in the 14 games without Munetaka, entering Wednesday’s game against the New York Yankees, the Sox have shown they’re not a one-man show. It’s a small sample size, but considering how important Murakami was to the Sox going 18-10 in May, it’s impressive they’ve been able to hang in in June.
“They haven’t skipped a beat,” manager Will Venable said. “I think it really speaks to what our offense was when we did have Mune. As good as he is, we’re getting contributions from everywhere. I think that’s evident now. You take him out of it and the guys are still performing well. Obviously we want him back in that lineup, but the guys are doing a great job without him.”
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The Sox were 8-6 in those 14 games, including a 5-4 mark against three of the best teams in baseball — the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. Their only real blemish was Tuesday’s 12-2 loss to the Yankees in the opener of the three-game series that continued Wednesday with Anthony Kay facing ex-Sox ace Carlos Rodon.
The numbers tell the story: Before Murakami went on the IL on May 30, the Sox were hitting .237 with a .728 OPS, averaging 4.7 runs per game. In the 14 games since, they hit .247 with a .755 OPS and averaged 4.9 runs per game. Even the home run hitting hasn’t slowed down. The Sox are averaging 1.5 per game without Murakami after averaging 1.3 with him.
Murakami’s 20 home runs still lead the team, followed by Colson Montgomery (17) and Miguel Vargas (16), who appears to be a lock to be selected as a reserve for the All-Star Game.
With Murakami gone, Vargas and Andrew Benintendi have stepped up offensively, while Sam Antonnaci and Tristan Peters have also been major contributors. The returns of Murakami and catcher Kyle Teel in the second half should keep the offense productive enough to continue contending, assuming the Sox acquire pitching at the trade deadline.
We haven’t heard or seen much of Murakami since the injury, besides watching him blow kisses to Shohei Ohtani from the Sox dugout last weekend at Rate Field. He has declined interview requests in New York, where there’s great interest from the local media in the newest Japanese star.
But he has been working out at Yankee Stadium, and Venable said Murakami has been hitting off a tee and gradually increasing his activities. But there’s still no timetable for when he can begin more strenuous activities — the kind that would precede a minor-league rehab stint. General manager Chris Getz recently said the 4-6 week window for his return remained the same.
So getting him back before the All-Star break seems improbable, if not impossible.
Rookie Jacob Gonzalez, who hit 19 home runs at Triple-A Charlotte before being called up to replace Murakami, had a .205 average with one home run and five RBIs entering Wednesday while trying to learn to play first base on a regular basis.
Gonzalez is likely to return to Charlotte when Murakami returns, though he still has a few weeks to prove he can contribute at the level he did in Charlotte.
“I’d love to stay, but if it’s not in the cards for them, that’s fine,” he said. “I’ll go down and try to prove myself some more.”
Has Gonzalez proved to himself he can play at this level?
“I would say I’m below average right now,” he said. “I need to do way better. But I’m growing and can help this team win.”
Gonzalez was a 2023 first-round draft pick who started slowly in the minors but altered his swing last year to dramatic effect, removing his crouch and closing his stance. The improvement was evident by this year’s power numbers at Charlotte.
Teel, meanwhile, homered in his first at-bat for Charlotte on Tuesday but will need a prolonged rehab stint because his knee injury occurred only four games into his initial rehab from a hamstring injury suffered during the World Baseball Classic.
Venable said Noah Schultz’s first outing during his rehab stint at Charlotte was “a little erratic.” The Sox don’t have a starter scheduled for Saturday’s game in Detroit. Venable declined to speculate on the decision, which could be dictated by how the bullpen is used the rest of the Yankees series.
While the offense has held it together without Murakami, the pitching has hit a speed bump, including Davis Martin’s poor performance Tuesday.
The White Sox came into Wednesday with a 5.37 ERA in June, ranked 25th in the majors, and were issuing 4.3 walks per nine innings, which ranked 28th. Venable has used four openers in the month, but the other starters — Martin, Kay, Erick Fedde and the since-demoted David Sandlin — combined for an 8.50 ERA in their eight combined starts.
Only Martin has lasted longer than five innings in that stretch — throwing six shutout innings against the Atlanta Braves before his drubbing by the Yankees.
It goes without saying the Sox need more length from their starters.
“It’s always important,” Venable said. ‘Especially (since) we’re now in Game 2 of 19 games in 20 days.”
Getz said Venable and his staff have done a good job juggling the need to continue developing players with competing for a postseason spot that seemed unlikely at the start of the season.
“Every clubhouse is different, every year is different,” Getz said. “For this one we’ve had a lot of debuts, and a lot of them have gone well once they’ve gotten here. That’s part of building a strong culture. We’ve been able to create that, and now it’s our job to maintain that and find ways to fuel it.”
