Pregame notes: Munetaka Murakami to miss 4-6 weeks with Grade 2 hamstring strain

Well, at least it wasn't a Grade 3.

As it turns out, no level of optimistic body language analysis, nor Munetaka Murakami's generally stoic reaction to his injury Friday night, nor even his lack of history of leg injuries served to soften the severity of the setback he suffered toward the end of his sprint up the first base line.

White Sox manager Will Venable said the team is expecting their star rookie slugger to miss 4-6 weeks with a Grade 2 right hamstring strain, just as the team prepares to face a June schedule featuring series against the Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies and the division-leading Guardians.

"It's tough," Venable said. "Obviously he makes a massive impact on our group, on and off the field. He's someone that puts so much energy into his work and to other people. He's probably pretty down right now, knowing that that's gonna take a different form here over the next few weeks. Just trying to support him and it's tough, but this is what every single team deals with, and you've got to find ways to continue to put plays together and play well and play good baseball."

It's not ideal. Murakami's prognosis perfectly mirrors the 4-6 week estimate Kyle Teel initially drew for his Grade 2 hamstring strain in March, but between his subsequent setback and related knee injury, no one is really looking to invoke that as a comparable situation.

"It’s really disappointing at this point of the season to be injured," Murakami said via interpreter. "But there are a lot of ways to contribute to the team, like cheering on and other stuff I can really put for the team. I’ll keep doing that so that we can keep grinding as a team."

Jacob Gonzalez has been called up on the heels of a torrid start to the season in Triple-A, where he's slashed .317/.419/.668 with 19 home runs. Even though he's clearly enjoyed the generous hitting confines of Truist Field, Gonzalez has made real improvements. Not only does the length of Murakami's injury mean there's some real runway for Gonzalez to display his progress, but it's almost a direct substitution in terms of role.

"Crushing baseballs is what he's been doing," Venable said. "Anticipate certainly against righties, that Jacob will be over at first base here for the first couple and we'll just see how it goes. He's got some defensive versatility. Colson [Montgomery] does, [Miguel Vargas] does. We'd really like to not disrupt that infield group too much. So I think first base makes sense. But yeah, we'll figure out what makes sense for the team on a daily basis."

If that wasn't bad enough, Derek Hill was a late scratch from the lineup with upper back tightness, shuffling the team's already wonky approach to dealing with left-handed starters.

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Murakami has appeared in every single Sox game this season and even stole his first base recently. But if you think that this injury is going to trigger a new recalculation of his workload, responses ranged from invoking the standard level of precaution...

"Those are conversations that we have every day about all our players, and making sure that we're doing the right thing to make sure that they're healthy and performing at their best," Venable said. "As we talk through this, there'll be, of course, a new calculus with the hamstring, making sure it's fine moving forward. But that's kind of woven into our process of making sure we're doing the right thing on a daily basis."

...to open defiance:

"One of my goals was to go the full season healthy, but that didn’t really come out well," Murakami said via interpreter. "After this injury, I will recover 100 percent and give it my all each and every day. I’m not going to be adjusting anything after the injury."

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Speaking of defiance, Jarred Kelenic rejected an outright assignment and elected free agency after being DFA earlier this week.

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Murakami will be traveling with the team throughout his rehab process, adding to the White Sox simultaneously heartening and worryingly large crop of injured players who can't bring themselves to part with their teammates.

"A lot of times you get hurt and you don’t want to get sent to Arizona because it’s just nicer to be in the big leagues," Venable said. "These guys want to be here because they’re good guys and they want to be together, which is awesome. Credit to what they’ve built that they all want to stick around and be part of it."

But they might run of lockers soon.

"We might, we’ll have to talk to [clubhouse manager] Rob [Warren] about that, could be an issue. Hopefully not."

First pitch: White Sox vs. Tigers

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