Chicago White Sox All-Star rookie Munetaka Murakami chose his Wild Card series MVP in a hilarious postgame interview Wednesday. Between declaring his lack of sobriety and saying "100"—a number he used to describe how he felt on a scale from 1 to 10 several times after clinching a spot in the postseason — Murakami named sophomore second baseman Chase Meidroth as the team's MVP for the first round of the postseason. "Chase Meidroth," Murakami said.
But small." Afterwards, Murakami acknowledged the 5-foot-9 Meidroth as the best second baseman in the American League. Murakami's enamoration with Meidroth is understandable following the White Sox's two-game sweep of the Houston Astros, as the 25-year-old had a fantastic series. He reached bae in five of his eight plate appearances, logging four hits over the course of the series.
His biggest moment came in the second game of the set, when he hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning to break the game open as the White Sox went on to win, 7-3. In the regular season, Meidroth hit 16 homers and tallied 63 RBIs, posting a .765 OPS through 154 games while accruing 4.5 fWAR — the most among AL second basemen. Murakami had a quiet Wild Card series, but still managed to make a difference with only one hit.
He drove in a run with his sole single of the series, and came around to score twice as his team secured a spot in the ALDS. While Murakami may not have delivered the big hit in his first MLB postseason series, he brought plenty of power to the team throughout the regular season. Murakami led the team with 35 homers, narrowly beating out Miguel Vargas and Colson Montgomery despite playing just 127 games, and posted a .825 OPS on his way to an All-Star appearance.
After securing an extra day of rest with their sweep over the Astros, the White Sox will head to Cleveland to play against the Guardians in an intra-divisional ALDS matchup. The Guardians took two games out of three during these teams' last matchup in September, but with momentum on their side, the White Sox will look to head to the NLCS after winning a postseason series for the first time since their World Series run in 2005.
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