{"id":753862,"date":"2026-07-10T03:17:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T03:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/753862\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T03:17:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T03:17:06","slug":"white-sox-to-activate-munetaka-murakami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/753862\/","title":{"rendered":"White Sox To Activate Munetaka Murakami"},"content":{"rendered":"

The White Sox\u2019 lineup will get a major boost tomorrow. Manager Will Venable told reporters (including Scott Merkin of MLB.com<\/a>) that\u00a0Munetaka Murakami<\/a> will be activated from the 10-day injured list. He\u2019ll make his return to the lineup for a home series against the Athletics to close the season\u2019s first half.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll come at a welcome time, as the White Sox were swept by Boston this week. The Red Sox\u2019 pitching staff held Chicago to a total of two runs over that three-game stretch. Chicago has remarkably yet to lose more than three games in a row all season, a streak they\u2019ll hope to maintain by taking tomorrow\u2019s opener.<\/p>\n

Murakami missed six weeks after suffering a Grade 2 strain of his right hamstring attempting to beat out an infield hit at the end of May. He was tied for second in the majors with 20 homers at the time. He\u2019s still in the top 15 despite the extended absence. Murakami had started his MLB career with a fantastic .240\/.378\/.560 line through 246 plate appearances \u2014 more than hitting for sufficient power and drawing enough walks to overcome the questions about his contact skills.<\/p>\n

The White Sox have had one of the least productive first base groups in the majors since Murakami went down. They\u2019ve gotten a .227\/.312\/.355 slash line from the position dating back to June 1, putting them in the bottom five of the league in OPS. That\u2019s in part because\u00a0Miguel Vargas<\/a> hasn\u2019t hit in 39 plate appearances as a first baseman while maintaining his breakout offensive pace when he\u2019s starting at third base. That\u2019s nothing more than a statistical oddity, but Murakami should provide a boost over the roughly average offense they\u2019ve gotten from rookie Jacob Gonzalez<\/a>. The former first-round pick has a .244\/.323\/.360 slash with a couple home runs in his first 30 MLB games.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez can move around the infield but won\u2019t have a path to regular playing time behind Murakami, Vargas, Chase Meidroth<\/a> and\u00a0Colson Montgomery<\/a>. If the Sox want to keep him around as a left-handed bat off the bench, fifth outfielder\u00a0Junior Perez<\/a> would be the other logical candidate to option to Triple-A. There\u2019s no need for a 40-man roster transaction.<\/p>\n

Despite the sweep, the White Sox are percentage points ahead of the Guardians for the lead in the AL Central. Minnesota sits two games back and the streaking Tigers have pulled within five games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The White Sox\u2019 lineup will get a major boost tomorrow. Manager Will Venable told reporters (including Scott Merkin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[122009,99],"class_list":["post-753862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-munetaka-murakami","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}