White Sox place Munetaka Murakami on IL, replace him with rookie who's just as good a HR hitter
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White Sox place Munetaka Murakami on IL, replace him with rookie who's just as good a HR hitter originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Chicago White Sox got some terrible news on Friday night when Munetaka Murakami left the game early with a hamstring strain.
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He's now going to miss quite some time, as his 20-homer rookie campaign goes on pause for likely a few weeks.
Taking his spot on the MLB roster, the White Sox announced that 24-year-old rookie infielder Jacob Gonzalez is getting the big-league promotion. But this isn't a simple rookie promotion; this rookie has showcased power on par with that of Murakami.
White Sox place Murakami on IL, call up INF with elite HR potential
"Roster Moves: INF Jacob Gonzalez selected the contract from Class AAA Charlotte. 1B Munetaka Murakami, placed on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain..." the White Sox announced Saturday.
While losing Murakami will be a significant blow to this team, the promotion of Gonzalez is going to be very interesting.
This season, in 200 at-bats, Murakami has 20 homers with a .240 batting average and a .938 OPS. Those are some truly elite numbers, but they aren't as good as what Gonzalez has done in the minors this year.
At Triple-A, across 199 at-bats, Gonzalez has 19 homers, a .317 batting average, and a 1.087 OPS. He's been even better than Murakami this season, which has been a total surprise.
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Before this season, since 2023 and across more than 1,000 at-bats, Gonzalez had hit just 17 total homers. In less than a fifth of the at-bats prior to this season, Gonzalez has more than doubled his minor league home run total.
The 24-year-old infielder will truly put this sudden power surge to the test in the Major Leagues. As he's filling in for Murakami, it will be even more intriguing to see if he can keep up his elite power numbers from the minor leagues in the Majors.
Chicago lost one of the best players in baseball this season in Murakami for a few weeks due to this hamstring issue, but they're calling up Gonzalez, who's shown home run potential on par with Murakami this season.
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