White Sox's Munetaka Murakami gets bad news on AL Rookie of the Year award

The Chicago White Sox are having a great 2026 season, and they're all of a sudden a very legitimate postseason contender this season.

However, there is one very big issue for the White Sox right now: Munetaka Murakami, their superstar rookie, has landed on the injured list and will be out for a while.

As Johnny Flores of The Athletic notes, this IL placement for Murakami is some especially bad news for his chance at winning the AL Rookie of the Year award this season.

Munetake Murakami gets bad news on AL Rookie of the Year award

"Originally, I had Munetaka Murakami for AL Rookie of the Year," Flores writes. "... That was before Murakami landed on the IL. He'll still get down-ballot RoY votes and will be in the conversations for Silver Slugger at first base, but the Steiner Math says his odds have drastically gone down."

Murakami, despite his incredibly hot start to the season, is not likely to win the AL Rookie of the Year award anymore after this IL placement.

He's going to miss a significant amount of time, and his chance to beat out Kevin McGonigle and the rest of a stacked AL rookie class appears slim to none.

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Before hitting the IL, Murakami had 20 homers, a .240 batting average, and a .938 OPS with a 160 OPS+. If he didn't get hurt, he'd surely be the frontrunner for this award.

However, Flores' point is a sound one, as players who miss a significant portion of the season will have a very hard time winning an end-of-season award.

Murakami would need to come back and be the best hitter in baseball to close out the season, unless the rest of the rookie field struggles or also begins to join him on the IL.

It's unfortunate, but amid such a fun season for the White Sox, it appears likely that Murakami might not win the AL Rookie of the Year award despite being well on his way to the honor before this IL stint.

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