CLEVELAND — Why should the White Sox ever pitch to Guardians legend Jose Ramirez?
It wasn’t a specific question before his fateful fourth-inning two-run homer off an ankle-high Sean Burke curveball in Cleveland’s Game 5 victory on Saturday. Intentionally walking Ramirez would’ve pushed leadoff man Steven Kwan into scoring position with no outs in a scoreless game.
Rather it’s an existential one, after Ramirez came alive to drive in seven runs over three-straight Guardians wins, more than the White Sox’ American League-best offense managed as a team over the same span. Among Sox leadership, Ramirez was described with a term too profane to print, but one that connoted fear and respect despite his injury-marred season.
But as manager Will Venable examined the matrix of every pitcher versus hitter matchup prepared for him by his staff, using the club’s internal research to assign an expected run value to each possible confrontation the Sox might face, the data informed that rookie outfielder Chase DeLauter could be referred to in the same terms.
“The matchup against DeLauter was way worse for us,” Venable said, referencing that research while discussing an RBI triple David Sandline allowed to Ramirez in Game 3. “Not even close. It was a way worse matchup for us, so we decided to pitch to Ramírez.”
Efforts to statistically prove the effect of lineup protection have been a mixed bag in baseball research, but after the White Sox were beaten by the Guardians’ best player, DeLauter’s enabling of it stretched beyond going 5-for-20 with two walks and no extra-base hits in the ALDS.
For all the offensive might the White Sox wielded this season, as they struck out an unfathomable 53 times over three games that sent them home for the winter, Miguel Vargas lacked a partner forcing similar decisions.
Vargas hit .308/.591/.538 in the ALDS. Whether the Guardians intended to walk the opposing team’s best player at Barry Bonds-like rates (nine free passes in 22 plate appearances) or the plate discipline that saw the All-Star third baseman draw 101 walks this season contributed to it, the White Sox’ inability to make Cleveland pay for Vargas living on the basepaths hung over the result.
Walks are a force multiplier when the White Sox offense is bashing home runs at the rate they did in the regular season, and irrelevant when they can’t put the ball in play, foreshadowed by the league’s fifth-highest strikeout rate during the season. As the Sox offense broke out in the first half, with Vargas, Munetaka Murakami and Colson Montgomery as the big three run producers, the latter two having the two lowest contact rates in the sport was just an aesthetic concern.
But as Montgomery set the all-time single-season strikeout record, Murakami weathered a deep late-season slump, the Sox striking out at an otherworldly 40.5% clip for the whole postseason felt forewarned. Their best Game 5 scoring chance ended with their All-Star first baseman swinging through 95 mph down the pipe, and progressing farther in future years with this current dearth of contact skill is unlikely.
“It was less about chase and more about being attacked in the zone and swing and miss in the zone,” Venable said of his offense’s last effort. “Just didn’t have what it would have taken to move some balls forward there, and I think obviously the story [was] just being able to put the ball in play.”
Struggles included, Murakami posted a .825 OPS and was a productive hitter in his first exposure to major league pitching, showed up in great physical shape and saved his best defense for the postseason. But where extending his two-year contract once seemed imperative, it now must be balanced against the long-term challenges of maintaining a swing that can produce a preponderance of whiffs when his hands drift out of their ideal path for a week.
Similarly entering the 2027 season with plenty to prove will be Montgomery. The power to pop 31 homers in a season in which he was often out of sync is rarely combined with palatable shortstop defense. For all their shortstop-heavy drafts, the Sox are a year and/or a healthy William Bergolla Jr. away from any in-house challengers at Montgomery’s position.
But Montgomery’s approach and swing path wavered in the second half and he slid to the bottom of the lineup for a reason. And even though Murakami authored the biggest Sox swing of the series in Game 1, walking Vargas to attack him was a winning strategy for the Guardians.
“We’re still a very young team,” Murakami said via interpreter after Game 5, while also lamenting his midseason injury. “We need to, we have to learn from our experience here and then bring that to next year.”
The White Sox think Braden Montgomery will provide much more when his swing gets efficient enough to elevate the ball consistently, Kyle Teel only showed flashes of his 2025 form amid injuries, and top prospect Caleb Bonemer’s eventual arrival should lessen the reliance on veteran right-handed platoon bats.
But the White Sox offense didn’t flounder in the ALDS because it simply wasn’t their time yet. Holes were exploited, and opponents will be probing for more. They can get better, but the road will also only get tougher.
“People are going to be gunning for our heads next year,” hitting coach Derek Shomon told the Sun-Times. “Rightfully so, they should be. So, you act accordingly.”