PHOENIX — Ultimately, the White Sox hope that playing in the intense environment of the WBC will have Munetaka Murakami’s timing in a better spot than it might have been playing out the string of Cactus League games in late March.
“From a position player standpoint, that’ll really get him locked in,” said assistant general manager Josh Barfield. “That could be a benefit going into the season, whereas some of the guys are on a little bit slower ramp up, he’ll already be at midseason form, you would think.”
That said, White Sox coaches will note that Murakami is still really just getting adjusted to the schedule of MLB spring training, and familiar with his teammates and the facilities. So Barfield seemed pleased to share that the Sox first baseman will be at Camelback Ranch until Feb. 27, which was a few days longer than initially planned and lines Murakami up for roughly a week of Cactus League action.
Murakami’s locker is flanked not just by his interpreter occupying the stall to his left, but his personal trainer occupying the one to his right. He’s had individual defensive sessions with Phil Nevin at first base, and Justin Jirschele waiting for pauses between batting practice pitches to hit grounders to Murakami at third in between his round really drives home the feeling of the White Sox trying to maximize their time together. Between him and Colson Montgomery, who is frequently in the same hitting group with Murakami and sharing notes on pitchers, White Sox officials often find themselves reflecting on how desperately they needed power added to their lineup.
“It’s been a missing component for the last couple of years and how hard it’s been to score runs over the last two seasons,” Barfield said. “We feel like we have a different dynamic for that now.”
Shane Smith faced Murakami in live at-bats on Friday and induced a pair of soft flares to second, both of which sparked debate between hitting and pitching coaches about whether they would have gone for a hit in a real game. The first encounter ended with Smith shattering Murakami’s bat, and the right-hander clearly was on the attack in both instances.
“Name of the game is getting ahead; 2-0 to him doesn’t really work,” Smith said.
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At some point over the last week or two, Will Venable has apparently grown weary of explaining the nuances of his deployment of high-leverage relievers, and how the biggest outs of the game might not necessarily come in the ninth inning. Describing Seranthony Domínguez’s role surely shouldn’t require such work.
“He’s our closer,” Venable said.
Domínguez ran a career-high 13.8 percent walk rate last season between the Orioles and Blue Jays last year, but the White Sox simply liked what his addition of a new splitter meant for his ability to handle lefties, more than they worried about deviations in his control.
“The walk rate did go up last year, but he handles lefties better; is that more viable or reliable version in a closer role than somebody who might walk less but have more platoon issues against lefties?” said Brian Bannister. “These are the internal R&D-type decisions you try to make. In general, a splitter is something that holds up really well under pressure. That sensory overload moment that hitters go through when everybody’s standing up for the ninth inning, splitters just hold up really well and you saw it showcased in the World Series last year.”
The presence of Domínguez, and Jordan Leasure, and also Jordan Hicks, and likely Sean Newcomb for later inning work, is expected to free up Grant Taylor for more multi-inning relief opportunities, and his arsenal is expanding in response. Taylor said at SoxFest that he plans to spend much of spring trying out his kick change, but the White Sox have already given him another arm-side weapon.
“I was actually very impressed with the two-seamer he added; it was actually pretty nasty and I think he’s going to throw it 100+ mph,” Bannister said of Taylor. “It’s not your typical depth two-seamer, but with hitters trying to solve all the glove-side problems you’re creating, righties are seeing balls cutting and sweeping away from them, when all of a sudden something comes into them for the first time, especially at high velocities, it’s another problem.”
All this relief velocity is something White Sox officials are clearly happy to have restored, after trying unsuccessfully to find ways to navigate around it the last two years. Hard-throwers seem to lead to shorter manager answers to questions about the bullpen.
“Love that, especially if it leads to outs,” Venable said of the increased velocity.
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Investment in relief is something the White Sox felt was necessary to allow their young core — and also the fan base — to feel like things are actually moving forward toward contention, since a 28-65 mark in one-run games since 2024 has produced records that fell below even meager expectations.
“We lost so many one-run games over the last two years, and it’s been a point of frustration,” said Barfield. “For the better part of the last year and a half, it was just hoping to win. Then in the second half, it kind of flipped and guys felt that every day we almost expected to win, or at least be in games. So we’re looking to continue to add to that team so guys feel like this is the year we start to close out some of these games. We were in a lot of games, we found a lot of ways to lose games the past two years, but this is a new crew.”
Despite the expensive additions of Domínguez and Hicks, there’s still room for some non-roster invitees to crack the Opening Day bullpen. Chris Getz already noted the Sox liking the chances of left-hander Ryan Borucki, a Mundelein-native and bonafide Chicago sports sicko, finding a spot in their bullpen.
Outside of his 40⅓ innings in 2023, there’s not a full season of successful relief work to point to in Borucki’s history, and he battled lower back issues this past year. But the 31-year-old has remade himself as a slider-centric lefty specialist, and is optimistic about his new splitter (and its 41-percent miss rate) making him viable enough against right-handers to crack a roster he would really, really like to make.
“Definitely a dream come true to be able to put this uniform on; as a kid, I used to always put it on, acting like I was on the White Sox in my backyard,” Borucki said. “I remember talking to my agent and he’s like, ‘Yeah, the White Sox are here,’ I was like, ‘Hmm, that’d be cool.’ I signed a little deal with the Cubs [in 2023] — I never liked the Cubs when I was growing up and it didn’t really end well. So I was just like, all right, I don’t even consider them a team that I played for. So when the White Sox came calling, obviously, I had a lot of options this offseason, but yeah, this was definitely top of the list from the beginning just because my parents still live in Mundelein.”
On the other side of the locker room, low-slot right-hander Tyson Miller is hoping to return to the form he showed in the Cubs bullpen in 2024, when he ran up 50⅓ innings of a 2.15 ERA before a left hip impingement submarined his 2025 season. Miller sits around 90 mph and relies on a unique arm angle and freaky amounts of his extension in his delivery to foil hitters, so in many ways he resembles the sort of unique relievers the White Sox have targeted the past two years.
“The Mariners told me ‘fastballs up, sliders that go left,'” Miller said of his approach. “Doesn’t matter where you hit or where you miss with your pitches, if the fastball is up, that’s good. Don’t get discouraged or mad at your previous pitch. They were big on the mental side of telling me why your stuff is good and how it works, and then being confident with just throwing those pitches.”
Miller is only 30 but has already seen major league action for six different teams, so after feeling that rest, rehab and strengthening work had restored his hip to full function by this December, he wanted to find a team that could provide a similar breakthrough
“The pitch development has gotten a lot better in this organization, so I like that,” said Miller, who had a Zoom call with Sox coaches about how he could replicate his 2024 campaign. “Being on six different teams before here, you have a lot of coaches who are trying to tell you this or tell you that. It’s just trying to find stuff you either haven’t heard before or trying new things that might click and help you be more consistent.”
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Former MLB player, coach and scout Joe Nossek has passed away at the age of 85. Nossek had two stints on the White Sox coaching staff (1984-86, 1990-2003), and rose to the role of bench coach in his second run.
“He was a valued member of the White Sox organization,’ Venable said. “Somebody we hear stories about, his coaching tactics. Just a brilliant coach and a valued member of the organization, so wanted to send condolences to the Nossek family.”