BALTIMORE — Rookie first baseman Jacob Gonzalez’s hot bat could leave the White Sox with a tough decision to make when slugging sensation Munetaka Murakami is ready to return from the injured list.
Gonzalez has hit ..423/.483/.692 over the past week with a homer and 12 RBI, half of which came in the first two games of their series in Baltimore. The Sox’ 2023 first-round pick went 0-for-2 with a walk in Wednesday’s matinee at Camden Yards.
“This team’s been a lot of fun, and it’s a cool group of guys,” said Gonzalez, who debuted May 31. “It feels like half the team is rookies, which is pretty cool. And it’s just fun to win with these guys.”
Jacob Gonzalez LACES a double to tie this game at 1 🔥 pic.twitter.com/VLhc4ehw7f
— White Sox on CHSN (@CHSN_WhiteSox) June 29, 2026
Murakami — sidelined since late May with the hamstring injury that halted his 20-homer, .938-OPS introduction to MLB — is traveling and taking batting practice with the team, but his exact return date is unknown.
“If it’s a week, two weeks, I have no idea,” said manager Will Venable, who declined to cross the roster bridge that awaits. There’s plenty of time for an injury to pop up and potentially create a big-league opening for Gonzalez, who mostly played shortstop while obliterating Triple-A pitching (1.087 OPS in 52 games with Charlotte).
“It’s so far away,” Venable said. “Who knows what’s going to happen, where we’re going to be at, or what the move will be. We’ll be excited to get Mune back, hopefully as soon as possible. Until then all these guys are gonna go out and do their thing, and we’ll see what the move is when it happens.”
Bonemer headed to All-Star Futures Game
Top prospect Caleb Bonemer became the first member of the Sox organization officially headed to All-Star week in Philadelphia, where the 20-year-old infielder will represent the team in the MLB All-Star Futures Game.
Bonemer, a 2024 second-round pick ranked as the No. 17 prospect in baseball by MLB, is hitting .267/.377/.378 with a homer, two doubles and eight RBI in 12 games since being promoted to Double-A Birmingham. He crushed 18 homers at High-A Winston-Salem before that, mostly playing third base and shortstop.
Bonemer was named last year’s MVP of the Low-A Carolina League.
Saved by Schweitzer
To accommodate Noah Schultz’s return from the injured list, the Sox shipped rookie reliever Tyler Schweitzer back to Triple-A Charlotte after the lefty’s four-inning save in Tuesday’s win that eased the load on a bullpen chugging through 19 games in 20 days in the middle of a withering heat wave.
“We told him after the game it was one of the hardest send-downs we’ve had coming on the heels of that performance,” Venable said. “For him to be able to do that, it not only put us in position to win that game, it will give us a better chance to win some games here this week.”
Schweitzer (4.50 ERA in five MLB outings over eight innings with three walks and four strikeouts) became the first Sox pitcher to notch a rare four-inning save since Matt Ginter in 2002, and their first rookie to do so since Keith Foulke in 1997.
Silver bullet
The addition of Randal Grichuk, who had an RBI single in Monday’s win, has added firepower to Venable’s arsenal off the bench.
“We have the Grich bullet to fire, which is a special bullet to fire,” Venable said of the veteran outfielder, who has three pinch-hit homers since signing with the Sox in early May. “It’s a special thing to have on your bench, among the other guys we have on our bench.”