Munetaka Murakami’s injury creates opening for a resurgent Jacob Gonzalez

There's an old John Mulaney bit where he explores the recurring characters in "Law & Order." Adhering the Rule of Three, he starts with "Guy Who While Being Questioned By Homicide Detectives Will Not Stop Unloading Crates," and finishes with "The New York City Bartender Who Recognizes Everybody That's Ever Been In The Bar Ever."

In between is the "Judge Who Allows Everything."

"Mmmmmmm, I'll allow it ... but watch yourself, McCoy."

The White Sox had to place Munetaka Murakami on the 10-day injured list this morning due to the right hamstring strain he suffered legging out a double play on Friday night, and while his absence will surely be felt, such is the charm of this White Sox season that they can replace the American League in home runs with Jacob Gonzalez of all people, yet anybody who's been paying attention should want to holster the gavel and wait to see where they're going with this.

It was only a month ago that any objection would be easily sustained. Gonzalez entered 2026 having hit just eight homers in each of his two full professional seasons, during which he posted nearly identical rate stats, and without an easily identifiable strength.

• 2024: .238/.307/.343 over 130 games
• 2025: .232/.307/.345 over 135 games

As he continued to fail to distinguish himself outside of his first-round pedigree, he'd lost ownership of the shortstop position to William Bergolla Jr., and Sam Antonacci raced by him into the White Sox's major league plans. You couldn't necessarily rule out Gonzalez from a Chicago cameo, just because he plays enough positions, hits left-handed and puts the bat on the ball, but he'd dropped down the priority list to the point that he was playing at first base to get plate appearances, and he might've been required to try the outfield, too.

Then Gonzalez started hitting, and he hasn't stopped. Now he's on both the 26-man and 40-man rosters, with the White Sox moving Jordan Leasure to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the latter.

Prior to the at-bat that preceded his call-up (which ended in a three-pitch strikeout), Gonzalez had eight hits in his last eight at-bats, and four of them left the yard, including one more on Friday.

Gonzalez added four more hits and four more RBIs to his line despite playing just half the game, so he'll head to Chicago hitting .317/.419/.668 with a league-leading 19 homers and 62 RBIs in 52 games, including a .344/.438/.771 line in May.

While Murakami has 20 homers over 246 plate appearances this season in Chicago, Gonzalez has matched his frequency with 19 homers over 238 plate appearances in Charlotte. And sure, Truist Field is one of the most hitter-friendly parks in minor league baseball, but there are a few reasons to think something is different:

1. He couldn't hit there last year.
2. There are a handful of lucky ones, but most of the homers he's hitting are legit enough.
3. He's hitting .253/.349/.407 on the road, which, while less impressive, is superior to anything he'd done before.

Gonzalez has also made mechanical changes, standing taller and lowering his hands. It's not the first time he's cited tweaks in search of improving his loading mechanism, timing or direction, but he's never produced with this sort of impact this steadily, and he's doing it at a time where other young White Sox hitters have touted huge gains through bat-speed training, so the organization has provided some strength in numbers to the strength of his numbers.

Gonzalez seems like he's feeling it, too. He's always been jarringly candid about the state of his game, but now when he drops the latest quote that makes you hope he's doing OK, its roots are in intensity, not despair.

Now his performance is garnering attention from third parties that had grown to discount him. He recently made Baseball America's list of Statcast standouts, where Eli Ben-Porat converted his drastically improved contact metrics into scouting grades that can read a tad exuberant, but with a conclusion that falls in line with what Gonzalez was supposed to be all along.

In the early going, it’s looking like 60-grade raw power that he isn’t fully tapping into, making it play more like a 55. He’s accomplished that transformation without sacrificing swing decisions or zone contact skills, producing an identical 76.8% overall contact rate. Given the zone contact and average exit velocities, he’s looking like a 50 hit guy. That’s very close to Gonzalez’s projection out of the draft.

One might say his draft report was never wrong, just a tad early.

Meanwhile, Keith Law, who was one of the first to jump off the Gonzalez bandwagon after seeing red flags in his pro debut, said in his top-100 prospects chat this week that he's buying into the rebirth to some unspecified degree:

Jacob Gonzalez coming back from the dead is one of the most fascinating prospect stories of the year for me. 

Ideally, the White Sox would be able to test Gonzalez's mettle under less pressing circumstances than an injury to their most dangerous hitter. However, a Murakami injury is the easiest way to give Gonzalez sustained playing time in an arrangement that feels close to natural. With a healthy Murakami, any attempt to shoehorn Gonzalez into the White Sox lineup would either displace a productive member of the White Sox infield, add another career infielder to the outfield mix with minimal training, or force Gonzalez into the DH spot, which is something he's rarely done.

With Murakami out, Gonzalez is now taking plate appearances that were going to a left-handed infielder. There might be a little awkwardness on the corners, because the plans to broaden Gonzalez's infield experience were tabled by Bergolla's shin injury. He's played shortstop almost exclusively during Bergolla's absence, leaving him with just 17 games of experience at third, and six at first base. But then again, Colson Montgomery only made four minor league appearances at third, yet the Sox haven't shied away from rotating him between both spots on the left side in the majors.

Gonzalez's production is too novel to have a ton of faith that it will translate as smoothly as Antonacci’s, but it could. And even if it doesn't, the next few weeks will be useful in exploring what Gonzalez might be expected to provide should similar circumstances arise later in the season. For the time being, it's a neat little trick that the White Sox are able to replace the American League home run leader with the minor league home run leader, and it's worth suspending skepticism and letting the line of questioning resolve itself.