White Sox mashing their way to respectability behind Mune, Montgomery and Miguel

SEATTLE — The White Sox have found some unlikely heroes while jumping to their best start in five years.

There was Derek Hill, the fourth outfielder-turned-pinch-hit-home run specialist, setting down the division-rival Royals. There was Tristan Peters, the ex-Saluki and ex-Savannah Banana, crushing a tie-breaking homer against the hated Cubs. And just in the nick of time, there was Edgar Quero making up for his woeful first two months of the year with a walk-off blast that’ll play in Crosstown highlight reels for generations to come.

While anything seems possible in mid-May for a rebuilding squad that’s finally looking competitive, those three names probably aren’t joining the household variety in Chicago anytime soon — even if the Sox can take another step from mediocre in the wide-open American League Central.

But there’s no question about the three M’s at the heart of the batting order whose consistent production has all of baseball reconsidering what the Sox might be able to accomplish in Year Three of general manager Chris Getz’s organizational overhaul: Munetaka Murakami, Colson Montgomery and Miguel Vargas.

The high-powered infield triumvirate had accounted for nearly two-thirds of the Sox’ eye-popping 66 homers entering play Monday, tied for second-most in Major League Baseball, with Murakami’s 17 leading the American League. The Sox led MLB in the 30 days leading up to their six-game West Coast road trip in homers (46) and OPS (.817).

It’s been a long path for the team’s offseason splurge from Japan, who has left 29 other teams shaking their heads after passing on his meager free-agent market.

The journeys have been just as long for Montgomery, who has shouldered the hopes of the rebuild since being drafted in 2021, and Vargas, who looked downright miserable after arriving from the high-flying Dodgers in the middle of the Sox’ historically bad 2024 season.

Now the trio are regularly sharing sushi-eating dugout celebrations while taking pressure off each other and a suddenly potent lineup in a season that’s actually carrying some marginal expectations.

“It just shows what this lineup is capable of doing,” Montgomery said ahead of the Sox’ rubber-match win against the Cubs before heading to Seattle. “It just takes a lot of pressure off a lot of us. We have runners on base, I’m on deck and I’m like, ‘Vargas, he draws a lot of walks.’ You get up to bat and I need to try to do something, but then he hits a three-run homer and it’s like, ‘Alright, now we are rolling.’ It takes the pressure off of everything.”

Montgomery has built on his impressive rookie campaign to a .238/.335/.524 start with 13 homers and 31 RBI. The shortstop would be the Sox’ story of the year if not for the thunderous debut from Murakami (.235/.372/.562), not that Montgomery’s complaining.

“Last year [I] didn’t really have much of a guy I could gauge off how I might get pitched,” he said. “Having a guy up here who’s also a left-handed bat and has power, it’s one of those things where I’m kind of getting questions to a test.”

Flying under the radar but perhaps not for much longer has been the third baseman Vargas, who’s hitting .247/.374/.506 with 11 homers and 29 RBI.

“He’s shown glimpses of it and I feel like now his work and preparation is kind of showing off,” Montgomery said. “Your preparation, your process — if you command that, in our heads, it’s like, we’re going to have success. He’s been banging and it’s been fun to watch.”

The homer-happy Sox have banged out nearly 52% of their runs via the long ball, according to Baseball Prospectus, but their recent run is more reliant on demeanor than distance, according to manager Will Venable.

“They’ve just continued to play all nine innings, every single pitch. It’s something [hitting coach Derek] Shomon talks about in the hitters’ meetings,” Venable said. “They have the energy for it and they just continue to put out a lot of energy on a daily basis.”