For a front office that views their rebuild as a longer-term project than competing for the playoffs in 2026, every day is full of surprises. But White Sox players were talking up the quality they have in the clubhouse before everyone saw what Munetaka Murakami could do.
"I said that earlier in the season," said Miguel Vargas after drilling a walk-off homer Friday night. "Probably a lot of people don’t believe me. I think the clubhouse did believe in that. We put that on the field every day."
"I never really thought about us being a losing team," said Murakami himself via interpreter. "It’s always having that winning culture and going into games with that kind of mindset. I have that mindset every single day. We are here to win."
And so it's challenging to find a voice in the White Sox clubhouse that is going to talk about Murakami missing at least the month of June with a hamstring strain as a looming disaster, even as their upcoming schedule offers showdowns with the Yankees, Dodgers and the division-leading Guardians. The brain of an athlete is typically geared to an alien level of confidence, since a rational view of your ability to handle the grind of professional ball probably results in topping out in A-ball. That said, Sox players usually root their success in qualities more ineffable than just their first baseman being on a 6-WAR pace.
"Got a lot of characters on this team, and thankfully everyone feels comfortable being themselves and letting it out," said Grant Taylor, who struck out four in two dominant innings of scoreless relief on Saturday. "We're not worried about what our record is. We're not worried about whatever. We're just worried about coming and letting the process take care of the results. So I think it's people around us are starting to see what this clubhouse has built over the last few months."
"When you assemble a group of winners together, I think a lot of good things happen," said Chase Meidroth. "It starts with our staff and obviously Will [Venable], him being such a big competitor that he is, it bleeds into us and brings it out of us. I can't say enough good things about what he's done at the helm."
The White Sox have 15 comeback wins this season, which is both nearly half their total victories on the season, and already three more than they managed in the hellish days of 2024. While there is surely something about their resilient nature at play there, Statcast's Fielding Run Value rates their defense as middle-of-the-pack (16th, largely due to catching, with Kyle Teel still down), and the pitching staff has the 20th-best xERA in the sport, but they compensate by scoring the eighth-most runs per game.
The offense is a pretty central part of everyone being able to wrap their arms around the idea that this success is real, and that any given day offers winnable games.
"We feel like if we keep their team to three runs or less, we're going to have a shot to win the game, regardless of what it is," said Sean Burke. "It's not as discouraging. Obviously you're always trying to limit the runs. But if you give up two early, there's still opportunity to win the game if you do your job. Especially as pitchers, where we're not playing every single day, you see everybody else is doing their job, offensively and through the bullpen, when you get your turn to go do it, you want to give it everything you have to keep that momentum going."
Obviously having the American League home run leader was part of reinforcing that feeling.
Into the void left by Murakami, who beyond his best-on-the-team offensive production is a slugger that game plans get built around and drags left-handed relievers into high-leverage matchups with Vargas, enters rookie Jacob Gonzalez, who is trying to keep both the team and his career momentum chugging along. Just two months ago, pegging Gonzalez for a future as a glove-first reserve infielder felt apt, but now he's up here to hit.
No one is actually expecting Gonzalez to replace Murakami in any realistic sense, but his playing time is going to come via regular starts at first base against right-handed pitching. Well beyond Murakami, the Sox infield is in the engine of their team, and Gonzalez is a big leaguer because he was hitting .317/.419/.668 in Triple-A rather than his defensive versatility. At least, like so many Sox players right now, he feels like his work with the team's player development staff has him putting together his best ball.
"It has been nice this year," Gonzalez said. "In spring we finally found a happy medium. Before I was trying to do stuff that I wasn’t comfortable with. Now, it's like I’m doing what I want to do, and doing what they have told me and blended them, so it’s been really comfortable and working."
But in running away from the Tigers on Saturday to seal up their second straight series win over a floundering AL Central opponent of the homestand to reach a season-high four games over .500, the White Sox made their case that there's more going on here than just Murakami and some middle-tier components.
Anthony Kay was an early Murakami evangelist given his previous encounters with him in NPB, but has been making just a strong of a case for himself after posting a 1.95 ERA across six starts in May.
"It’s obviously tough losing him, but we’ve got the next man up mentality," Kay said. "We’re going to hand it off to the next guy and he’s going to do his job and keep it rolling."
Colson Montgomery capping off a Saturday with a towering home run after walking and doubling earlier in the game is a good reminder that depending on your preferred version of wins above replacement, the most valuable position player on the team is not Murakami, but him or Vargas.
Not long ago, Edgar Quero not only seemed like he had blown a big chance to prove himself as a No. 1 catcher in Teel's absence, but would be Triple-A bound when he returned. There's a ways to go yet, but after Saturday, half of his multi-hit games on the season and both of his home runs have come in the last two weeks. When a hitter is talking about mechanics all the time it's not good. When they're miming out their reworked hip load in front of a bank of cameras, usually it means they believe in what they're doing.
The White Sox won't have Murakami nor Teel for a while yet as they face their most challenging stretch of the schedule to date. But boy, do they ever believe in what they're doing.
"He got injured but he's going to come back, and we just play everyday hard and it doesn't matter," Quero said. "The team is playing pretty good baseball, playing hard every day and that's the mentality right now. That's the new White Sox. 2026 White Sox, the mentality is win every day and make the playoffs."
