Munetaka Murakami expected to begin rehab assignment Tuesday, could rejoin White Sox this week

CLEVELAND — Injured slugger Munetaka Murakami is expected to begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Charlotte on Tuesday, and he could rejoin the White Sox on their homestand this week, manager Will Venable said Sunday.

Murakami, who’s tied for second on the team with 20 home runs despite missing five weeks with a strained right hamstring, ran the bases Saturday and was supposed to run them again Sunday. With the field covered because of rain, that’s unlikely to happen. But after he recovered well from running, all signs point to him starting his rehab.

The Sox had said that Murakami ran the bases Friday, meaning he would’ve fulfilled the team’s requirement for running without issue on back-to-back days Saturday. But Venable said Murakami ran on the field Friday, not the bases, making Saturday his first day on the bases.

Venable said the plan for Sunday was for Murakami to do some kind of running, and assuming he recovers well from that, he’ll travel to Charlotte on Monday and be in the Knights’ lineup Tuesday for their home game against Nashville. After a couple of rehab games, Munetaka could be in the Sox’ lineup Friday, which would mark exactly six weeks since the injury.

“There’s a week’s worth of games mapped out,” Venable said. “That doesn’t mean that he’s necessarily going to play all those games. We want to be really mindful of the injury, the significance of it and the build-up. You build in a plan, but certainly if it goes well, it doesn’t have to play out every single game. It’s day-to-day, but I would assume a couple of games at least.”

More to come …