With Munetaka Murakami sidelined by a strained right hamstring on May 29, the White Sox called up Jacob Gonzalez and pushed him to first base. Despite limited experience at the position, Gonzalez has moved quickly—until costly mental mistakes against the Twins
DETROIT — The White Sox’ playoff push is unusual in one particular way: they’re leaning on players still sorting out big-league life. And in Jacob Gonzalez’s case, they’re also leaning on a player adapting to a new position.
The team called Gonzalez up with the intention of playing him at first base after Munetaka Murakami suffered a strained right hamstring on May 29. It was a sharp pivot for Gonzalez, who primarily is a shortstop. At both the college and minor-league levels, he had started only five games at first base.
Gonzalez forced his way onto the roster with 19 home runs in 52 games at Triple-A Charlotte this season. Manager Will Venable said days after the call-up, “He’s here to play first base for us,” adding, “We’re going to support him.”
Sox third-base and infield coach Justin Jirschele framed the challenge as something that can’t be explained away just by moving from the middle infield to the right corner. “That’s where it gets lost with guys that play in the middle or even just on the left side of the infield. ” Jirschele told the Sun-Times. “Go over to first base, and it’ll be easy. But it’s not. There’s a lot of nuance to it.”.
So far, Gonzalez’s adjustment has been uneven, but the physical work has impressed the staff. A couple of mental miscues have shown up, yet Jirschele said Gonzalez has been handling the physical aspects well. The Fielding Bible lists Gonzalez with a defensive runs saved of plus-two—above average, with average set at zero.
“The amount of runs he he’s saved, the amount of double plays he’s started, the amount of picks he’s had in the dirt — overall, he’s been really, really good,” Jirschele said. “Especially for how new he is there.”
What’s changed for Gonzalez isn’t just his responsibilities, but the feel of the job itself. “He’s working on his backhand,” Jirschele said. “And you have to remember he’s used to using a [smaller] glove, and now it’s damn near double. Yeah, it’s a bigger glove to catch throws, but fielding ground balls, it’s a much different feel.”.
Still, the Sox have paid for those growing pains. On June 2 against the Twins. Gonzalez moved to field a ball bunted back to pitcher Davis Martin and ended up out of position for Martin’s throw. On Tuesday against the Yankees. he thought a ball was headed to the outfield. so he moved toward the mound as the cutoff man. When second baseman Chase Meidroth fielded it, he had no one to throw to.
For Gonzalez, Jirschele said, the lesson was direct: go to the base first.
“The game’s always the best teacher for all of us,” Jirschele said. “We’re going to make mistakes; we learn from them. That’s exactly what I told him [Wednesday]: ‘I bet you that doesn’t happen again because you’re going to learn from that.’ ”
There’s another part of the transition that seems to help him even before it’s fully settled: his shortstop instincts on the right side. Jirschele said that when Gonzalez is playing near the right side of the infield with a right-handed hitter at the plate. he can be aggressive in a way that affects what the opponent sees.
“If you watch where he’s playing and how aggressive he is on right-handed hitters. he’s almost halfway to second base. ” Jirschele said. “But he’s comfortable enough to play there. It doesn’t happen a ton, but just optically, it takes away righties from feeling comfortable. It speaks volumes to how much he’s grown there in such a short period of time.”.
Even so, Gonzalez hasn’t been starting every day. Though he has started only once this week, the reason is matchups rather than anything about his first-base work. The Sox have faced three lefties, and that has kept the left-handed-hitting Gonzalez on the bench. He is expected to be in the lineup Saturday, when the Tigers start right-hander Troy Melton.
That matchup matters because Gonzalez has been struggling at the plate lately. He is hitless in his last seven games.
In the field, though, the Sox keep seeing the same thing: progress that looks real, not just hoped for. “All in all, it’s just a new position that he’s extremely young in,” Jirschele said. “He’s young in general but extremely young at first base. We’re extremely happy with how he’s taken to it.”
With the Sox asking Gonzalez to learn on the fly—through mistakes that cost runs and corrections that come just days later—the question isn’t whether the transition has been hard. It’s whether the quick start continues long enough to matter in October.
White Sox Jacob Gonzalez first base Munetaka Murakami strained right hamstring Will Venable Justin Jirschele Davis Martin Chase Meidroth Yankees Twins Troy Melton