After being sidelined since May due to a strained right hamstring, the Chicago White Sox have activated slugger Munetaka Murakami off the injured list on Friday.
Manager Will Venable confirmed that Murakami would be in the starting lineup for the team when they took the field against the Athletics Friday evening. “He’s ready to go,” Venable said. “He was challenged running the bases, defensively, had a really long game yesterday. So, feel good about the workload, recovered well today so he’s ready to go.”
“We understand the impact he makes on the field and in the clubhouse so to activate him is going to mean a lot for our group,” Venable continued. “Really excited about him.” Across two rehab appearances with Triple-A Charlotte, the 26 year old went 2 for 7 with a double.
In 57 games this season, the left hander has hit .240/.378/.560 with 20 home runs, 41 RBIs, and 43 runs scored. At the time of his injury, Murakami ranked amongst the American League leaders in several offensive categories. He’s been on the mend since going down on May 29th after he attempted to beat out a throw to first against the Detroit Tigers.
Chicago has been the surprise team across all of Major League Baseball this season, sitting atop the AL Central with a 47-45 record. That being said, the team’s offence has fallen into a slump lately as the team has dropped 3 games in a row and 6 of 8 overall.
As it stands, they’re in a dead heat with the Cleveland Guardians for top billing in the division. Meanwhile, the Twins are just two games back, and the Tigers have begun to turn things around, going 8-2 over their last 10 games to claw their way to within 4.5 games of the division lead.
In Murakami’s absence, the White Sox have had one of the least productive first base groups in the majors offensively. They’ve combined for a .227/.312/.355 slash line from the position dating back to June 1st, which would put them in the bottom 5 across the Majors in that regard at 1st.
All of those things combined will make for an extremely happy fanbase in the south side of Chicago to see their rookie sensation inserted back into the lineup later tonight.
Photo: Nesnad. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.