Chicago’s late-spring playoff positioning isn’t built on Munetaka Murakami alone. With the White Sox sitting 28-27—one of the three AL Wild Card spots as Memorial Day has passed—five other players are driving the run of success that has kept attention on the S
On a season where the scoreboard keeps flipping fast, one thing has stayed consistent for Chicago in the first two months: the White Sox are winning enough to matter.
At 28-27. they hold one of the three AL Wild Card spots with more than a month of summer in the calendar sense—Memorial Day already passed. It’s the kind of positioning that changes conversations inside ballparks and at dinner tables. especially after 2024 when the White Sox lost 121 games. a Modern Era record since 1901.
Much of the spotlight has been aimed at Munetaka Murakami. In his first 55 games, the first-year Japanese slugger has crushed 20 home runs and posted a .936 OPS. But the White Sox’s climb has never been a one-man story. The numbers entering Wednesday’s games point to a wider surge—five prominent players whose production has helped keep Chicago in the playoff picture.
Colson Montgomery. SS — 2026 stats: .792 OPS. 13 HR. 2.0 WAR
Montgomery’s breakthrough looks even sharper when you remember where he was a year ago. In late April 2025. he was struggling so much at Triple-A Charlotte that the organization sent him to work at the White Sox Camelback Ranch complex in Arizona for a multiweek reset.
The move worked. During the summer, Montgomery surged back, debuted in the Majors in July, and hasn’t looked back since. He hit 21 home runs in 71 games as a rookie, with excellent shortstop defense. This year, he’s largely produced at a similar rate. Since debuting last July 4. Montgomery ranks 11th among position players in WAR (4.7) and has crushed 34 home runs. tied for the fourth most in baseball.
The craft comes with a question mark, too. His 37.6% whiff rate ranks in the 2nd percentile of all qualified players. Still, the power and defense combination is what keeps him essential—an all-world defender at shortstop alongside some of the best power of any player at the position.
Davis Martin, RHP — 2026 stats: 61 2/3 innings, 2.04 ERA, 66 K, 12 BB, 2.3 WAR
If Montgomery’s path includes a reset, Davis Martin’s climb includes something stranger: a career that flipped directions.
The 29-year-old has risen to the kind of production that has him on the radar as a possible Cy Young Award candidate. Martin has never shown this level pretty much anywhere before. In his first three MLB seasons, he posted a 4.32 ERA in 256 innings, and the ERA indicators there were even worse. Before that, in the Minors, he had a 4.80 ERA across seven seasons.
A 14th-round pick in the 2018 Draft by the White Sox. Martin has completely flipped the script. now boasting a top-10 ERA and WAR among all qualified pitchers. His transformation is tied to changes he’s made across the board: he’s dropped his arm angle a few degrees and is now throwing six pitches more than 10 percent of the time.
Those adjustments show up in the results. He has a career-best 27.4 percent strikeout rate, a 5.0 percent walk rate, a 28.0 percent whiff rate, and a 35.4 percent chase rate. Even if he’s over his skis a bit. Martin is locked in as a real rotation arm—and that has been a win for both him and the team.
Miguel Vargas, 3B — 2026 stats: .837 OPS, 12 HR, 1.7 WAR
Miguel Vargas’s story has its own kind of momentum—one built after a trade and then rebuilt again.
Vargas was acquired from the Dodgers in the 2024 three-team trade that sent Tommy Edman to L.A. In 42 games with the White Sox after the ‘24 trade, Vargas posted a .387 OPS. The next year. he improved into something closer to what teams hoped for: roughly league-average in 2025 with 99 OPS+ and 1.4 WAR in 138 games.
This season, he’s taken a bigger leap. The 26-year-old has a .233/.361/.476 slash line with 12 home runs in 53 games. He’s added more bat speed (+3.4 mph) than any qualifying player, and it has paid off—he’s posting a career-best 15.0 percent barrel rate.
Discipline has shifted, too. Vargas has dropped his chase rate to 16.8 percent, placing him in the 99th percentile of players. His 19.3 percent whiff rate is also a career-best mark. The skills were always there for the former top Dodgers prospect; now they’re showing up for a White Sox team that did quite well in that original trade.
Grant Taylor, RHP — 2026 stats: 26 2/3 innings, 2.36 ERA, 39 strikeouts, 1.0 WAR
Grant Taylor has been the kind of reliever that turns late innings from a problem into a weapon.
This season he’s one of baseball’s best relievers, full stop. Last year, Taylor had a 4.91 ERA in 36 games as a rookie, but the underlying swing-and-miss numbers were pointing toward a breakout that was coming.
It arrived. Taylor has struck out 34.8 percent of opposing hitters, the ninth-highest rate among all pitchers with at least 20 innings pitched. His 1.65 FIP ranks fifth among that subset. At 6-foot-3. he brings elite extension (97th percentile) and throws a 98.4 mph average fastball. a nasty mid-80s curveball. and a high-80s slider.
He’s not Chicago’s de facto closer yet, but he’s on track to grab that mantle sooner rather than later.
Sam Antonacci, OF — 2026 stats: .747 OPS, .374 OBP, 0.5 WAR
Sam Antonacci’s rise has been quieter than a home-run barrage, but it’s the kind of presence teams feel.
Earlier this year, Antonacci put himself squarely on the baseball radar for Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic. In an upset win over the United States, he hit a two-run homer.
He began the year in Triple-A Charlotte, then was promoted in mid-April. Since that point, he’s been one of the best White Sox players. For all his impact, Antonacci isn’t known as a power threat—he’s homered once in 37 games. What he does instead is grind at-bats into something uncomfortable.
He’s a quintessential pest at the plate, a tough at-bat with a strikeout rate, whiff rate, and chase rate in the 88th percentile or better. He also seems magnetic to pitches—his 11 hit-by-pitches are the most in the Majors.
Antonacci has been the perfect complementary role player, helping supplement the big boppers mentioned above.
When the White Sox finish a half-season stretch at 28-27 with playoff positioning still alive. the story is harder to reduce than it looks. Murakami’s 20 homers and .936 OPS have earned the headlines. But the numbers show how the rest of the lineup and pitching staff are pulling their weight—Montgomery’s power-and-defense bounce-back after a late-April 2025 reset. Martin’s sudden shift to frontline production. Vargas’s leap after a rough post-trade start. Taylor’s swing-and-miss surge. and Antonacci’s steady pressure from the margins.
The test will be what happens after Memorial Day as the schedule tightens and fatigue sets in. For now. the White Sox’s playoff picture isn’t just a highlight reel—it’s a collection of players hitting their marks at the same time. which is the one thing that turns a rebuilding-era hope into something closer to a plan.
White Sox Munetaka Murakami Colson Montgomery Davis Martin Miguel Vargas Grant Taylor Sam Antonacci AL Wild Card Chicago baseball