Now would be a good time for all Chicago White Sox fans to declare their true feelings about the state of the organization as the team ends 2025 on an upbeat note.
Is the hard part of the rebuild finally over, or is “Mune Time” a mirage?
The signing of Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami, whom Sox general manager Chris Getz described as a “superstar,” capped off a year in which their most valuable asset was Pope Leo XIV, who was not on the payroll and whose contributions were relegated solely to the marketing of the team.
The pope couldn’t prevent the Sox from their third straight season of 100-plus losses. He could not rush the ownership switch and put Justin Ishbia in Jerry Reinsdorf’s chair. And he couldn’t move the chains on the Sox’s pursuit of a new ballpark in the South Loop.
All he really did was make Sox fans proud that the pope was one of theirs. That and $14 will buy you a beer at Sox Park.
But now the Sox have someone to replace Pope Leo as the centerpiece of the 2026 marketing plan, and the selling of Mune will be something to watch. He made a good first impression Monday at his introductory news conference in the auditorium that was virtually abandoned during the Pedro Grifol era.
Murakami said all the right things through his interpreter about wanting to be a White Sox, and Getz hyped the signing by saying “to be able to have him now wear a White Sox uniform, it cannot be overstated how significant that is.”
So how significant is it?
Financially, not so much. His two-year, $34 million deal pales in comparison to the five-year, $75 million deal for Andrew Benintendi in 2022, the biggest in White Sox history. It’s also not anywhere near the four-year, $73 million deal for Yasmani Grandal in 2019, which signaled the Sox were ending their rebuild and trying to win.
“The signing of Grandal was a mind-blowing one to be honest, especially with (catcher James) McCann having such a great year,” Dallas Keuchel said at the 2020 SoxFest. “It fortifies us (having) two of the best backstops in the league, and that’s really where you build from.”
It didn’t end well on the South Side for Keuchel or Grandal, and the Benintendi deal hasn’t exactly worked out as planned either. But the Murakami signing was mind-blowing in its own way because who thought the Sox could convince a power-hitting free agent to come to the South Side on a two-year deal?
“My main priority was to find the best fit,” Murakami said. “Whether the contract was long or not wasn’t really a factor for myself. I just really believe in the city and the organization, really, really happy to be here.”
It’s here that it must be noted Murakami is going to strike out quite a bit and might be a liability in the field at third or first base. No reason to worry about that now. If he can hit 35-40 home runs and not be a butcher, he’ll be worth the investment.
What he brings to the Sox is hope, which has been missing since the downfall began under Tony La Russa in the summer of 2022. His replacement, Grifol, proved to be the wrong messenger, and executives Ken Williams and Rick Hahn were subsequently fired. Hahn was replaced by Getz after Reinsdorf declined to search for a general manager outside the organization, citing the need to win quickly. Getz was given total control.
“Except when it comes to spending money,” Reinsdorf said that day. “But every owner reserves that right. But now I lost my train of thought. I feel like Mitch McConnell.”
Getz’s first two seasons have been less than inspiring, but an improved core and a manager with a calming presence in Will Venable made the second half of ’25 tolerable. And now he convinced Reinsdorf to go all in on Murakami, who fit the financial profile of a Sox free agent.
Getz said “when we identify a player that we feel like has a chance to really come into the organization and fit with what we’re trying to accomplish, you know I have a conversation with Jerry about it. And in this case, the more we talked about it, obviously talking about Mune and what he’s capable of doing on the field, the international connection, he got more and more excited.”
Well, the two-year commitment at Aldi prices probably got Reinsdorf excited as well. He’s not a Whole Foods kind of guy, as we’ve seen.
We don’t know if Mune, as he was referred to Monday, can take the Sox to the next step of the rebuild, as Grandal and Keuchel did in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. At the very least he’ll get some of the Japanese reporters covering the Los Angeles Dodgers at Camelback Ranch this spring to take the short hike over to the Sox clubhouse and check in on the newest Japanese sensation.
Murakami said he got great reviews of Chicago from Cubs players Seiya Suzuki and Shota Imanaga, and hopefully he can match their popularity in his two-year stint. Sox fans could use a superstar, especially one who can hit home runs and help them win some games.
“Obviously I’ve heard that this club has lost a lot of games in the past, but that is in the past,” he said. “I only look forward.”
That’s always the best direction to look.
Maybe he’ll blow our minds in 2026, leading the Sox out of the rebuild desert and getting the pope off the hook.
It’s worth a shot.