{"id":442634,"date":"2026-01-30T08:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T08:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/442634\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T08:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T08:46:08","slug":"white-sox-notes-acquisitions-acuna-murakami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/442634\/","title":{"rendered":"White Sox Notes: Acquisitions, Acu\u00f1a, Murakami"},"content":{"rendered":"

The White Sox finalized their two-year, $20MM free agent contract with\u00a0Seranthony Dom\u00ednguez<\/a> this afternoon. The hard-throwing righty is expected to step into the ninth inning for skipper Will Venable. That deal came on the heels of the Sox trading\u00a0Luis Robert Jr.<\/a> to the Mets, a move which dropped the center fielder\u2019s $20MM salary from the books.<\/p>\n

General manager Chris Getz said after the Robert trade that the Sox would be \u201cvery active\u201d in using that payroll space. Dom\u00ednguez will make $8MM in the first season of his slightly backloaded deal. Even if the White Sox don\u2019t intend to reallocate all $20MM into this year\u2019s roster, there should be room in the budget for another addition.<\/p>\n

Getz acknowledged as much, saying on Thursday that the front office remains involved on both free agent and trade targets. \u201cWe\u2019re still fairly active in free agency and also talking to other clubs,\u201d Getz said in a TV appearance (video via CHSN<\/a>). He made similar comments in a fan event before this weekend\u2019s SoxFest Live event. \u201cI believe that there are going to be more adds. To what level, (I\u2019m) unsure,\u201d the GM said (link via Scott Merkin of MLB.com<\/a>). \u201cWhat we can provide is opportunity and a runway, and some of these players we\u2019ve acquired just haven\u2019t gotten that runway in other places for various reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

This remains a rebuild even if the White Sox have had a bigger offseason than anticipated. Dom\u00ednguez is an established reliever, but the rest of Chicago\u2019s pickups have been upside shots on young players or those whose roles might change. They jumped on the opportunity to add Munetaka Murakami<\/a> on a two-year, $34MM contract when the Japanese slugger\u2019s market didn\u2019t develop. The Sox signed NPB returnee Anthony Kay<\/a> to a two-year deal that likely includes a rotation spot.\u00a0Sean Newcomb<\/a> worked mostly out of the bullpen last year but could battle for a starting job in camp. On the position player side, they\u2019ve taken fliers on former highly-regarded prospects Luisangel Acu\u00f1a<\/a> and\u00a0Everson Pereira<\/a> in trades.<\/p>\n

Acu\u00f1a came over from the Mets in the Robert deal. He\u2019s a .248\/.299\/.341 hitter in 233 MLB plate appearances but never had consistent playing time in New York. Acu\u00f1a has primarily been a middle infielder in his career, but he\u2019s also playing a good amount of center field in the Venezuelan Winter League. He has plus-plus speed that could be an asset in the outfield. Jon Heyman of The New York Post<\/a> writes that Acu\u00f1a is likely to get an opportunity to step directly into Robert\u2019s role as Chicago\u2019s primary center fielder.<\/p>\n

The versatility means Acu\u00f1a will probably still see some infield work. Chicago\u2019s middle infield tandem of\u00a0Colson Montgomery<\/a> and\u00a0Chase Meidroth<\/a> is more exciting than their post-Robert outfield, which may be the worst in MLB.\u00a0Andrew Benintendi<\/a> is back in left field. Pereira,\u00a0Brooks Baldwin<\/a>, Derek Hill<\/a> and\u00a0Tristan Peters<\/a> \u2014 along with minor league signees\u00a0Jarred Kelenic<\/a> and\u00a0Dustin Harris<\/a> \u2014 make for an unimposing right field mix. There\u2019s a decent chance they\u2019ll make another outfield move or two before Opening Day. There\u2019s also ample opportunity in a rotation that is led by Shane Smith<\/a>,\u00a0Sean Burke<\/a>,\u00a0Davis Martin<\/a> and the free agent signees Kay and Newcomb.<\/p>\n

While there are a lot of moving pieces, Murakami should be a staple as the everyday first baseman. Major league clubs clearly had big reservations about the rate at which he swung and missed in Japan. Murakami may have as much raw power as any hitter on the planet, though, and the Sox will no doubt have a long leash as he tries to acclimate to MLB pitching. It\u2019s the kind of upside play that virtually no one saw coming at the beginning of the offseason, when Murakami was widely expected to command a nine-figure deal.<\/p>\n

That skepticism extended to the White Sox themselves. Getz spoke with Scott Merkin of MLB.com<\/a> about the signing and acknowledged that the NPB superstar was not a player they expected to add. \u201cCandidly, I didn\u2019t think it was going to be a realistic target for us. I didn\u2019t. The speculation was big, whether it be years, and dollars. \u2026 We did our due diligence. But I still didn\u2019t feel like it was going to be realistic, even into when free agency opened up.\u201d<\/p>\n

It carried well into the offseason, as Getz said he still didn\u2019t view Murakami as a viable addition into the Winter Meetings in early December. Talks didn\u2019t accelerate until a few days before the close of the player\u2019s 45-day posting window, which expired on December 22. Once it became apparent that Murakami wasn\u2019t going to find a long-term deal he desired, the Sox made their move.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just view this as truly upside,\u201d Getz said of adding a marquee player from Japan. \u201cThe baseball side, the business side. There\u2019s a big impact and it\u2019s leading to things that perhaps we didn\u2019t even anticipate, quite honestly.\u201d Sox fans will want to read Merkin\u2019s full column, which includes more specifics from Getz and Venable on the process leading up to the agreement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The White Sox finalized their two-year, $20MM free agent contract with\u00a0Seranthony Dom\u00ednguez this afternoon. The hard-throwing righty is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,12425,462,101356,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-442634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-luisangel-acuna","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-munetaka-murakami","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}