Commentary: A tale of 2 Chicago baseball teams as Cubs and White Sox aim their sights on October

CHICAGO Will Venable and Craig Counsell were in good position heading into the All-Star break with teams that had been through various struggles and came out ahead.

Progress is not always accomplished in a conventional manner, as both managers can attest.

The Chicago White Sox were tied for first in the American League Central, despite starting 1-5 and being outscored 52-21 in those six games, looking like a repeat of 2025, or perhaps even ‘24. They lost slugger Munetaka Murakami for six weeks in a stretch where they faced the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees in consecutive series, a season-wrecking road to destruction.

But the Sox went 5-3 over the stretch with a rainout, and have gone 11-11 since, staying above water with Murakami now back.

The Sox entered the second half with a 50-45 record, and Venable is on track for the AL Manager of the Year award.

“We just settled in, and these guys are really all major leaguers, but if you’re going to survive in this league you have to deal with adversity,” Venable said Sunday. “I thought we did a good job and stayed the course in the early going when it was really tough. We just didn’t feel stable, so to find our way means a lot.”

There have been many surprises in the half, including rookies Sam Antonacci and Tristan Peters, Miguel Vargas’ improvement, and relievers Sean Newcomb and Bryan Hudson. But Murakami is the one who changed the way fans feel about the Sox, and maybe the way the Sox feel about themselves.

It all started when the Sox agreed to his request to install bidets in the locker room.

“We got him the bidet, and that just speaks to trying to get him as comfortable as possible,” general manager Chris Getz told me in spring training.

As the old saying goes, the team that bidets together, stays together.

“It’s a game-changer,” one Sox outfielder told a Japanese reporter.

Game changed.

I asked Murakami in spring training if he was ready to become the face of the franchise.

“I haven’t really gotten to a point where I’ve had any results in the major league yet,” Murakami replied through his interpreter. “So I don’t think of myself as the face of the franchise yet. I’ll try to build on that this season.”

It didn’t take long before he proved himself worthy of the designation. Even the six-week absence with a hamstring injury couldn’t stop the Mune Train from rolling along, and this week he made the All-Star team and participated in the Home Run Derby.

In Murakami, the Sox found a slugger who could help lift a team with his bat and help lift a fan base with his mere presence. The Sox have not had a free agent make a first impression like Mune for a long time.

He’s not the only one to generate interest in a Sox team that stunned the experts in the first half after being pegged for another season of 100 or more losses, but the ovations he received in his return to the South Side last weekend indicate this is the start of a beautiful friendship.

Murakami is only signed through 2027, and if he’s looking to maximize his earnings, he’ll likely be gone when his contract ends and he becomes a free agent. The Sox haven’t signed a player to a nine-figure contract, as every Sox fan knows, and unless Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf takes the kind of risk most other owners consider standard operating procedure for superstars, he’ll be too expensive to keep.

The key is to win now, enjoy him while you can, and cross your fingers that Murakami might love Chicago enough to take a hometown discount.

The Cubs signed their own face of the franchise to a six-year, $115 million deal at the start of the season, rewarding Pete Crow-Armstrong for doing PCA things, which may or may not include Gold Glove defense, taking extra bases, home run hitting and bat slamming. (Though probably not the bat slamming.)

The sound of his initials alone drew an instant reaction, with “PCA” chants from road-tripping Cubs fans annoying the locals in venues from Dodger Stadium to Great American Ball Park to Rate Field.

Sometimes being a villain pays off.

The Cubs held the top National League wild-card spot at the break and sliced the Milwaukee Brewers’ division lead to five games with a 20-8 stretch since June 11, roughly coinciding with Crow-Armstrong’s move up to the leadoff spot.

It’s been a zig-zag route from 15 games over .500 to .500 and back to 12 games over .500.

“Our record is our record,” Counsell said Sunday. “I don’t have any grand stories. You guys write the stories about the first half. We’re trying to grind out as many wins as we can. That’s the job, that’s the goal. Keep trying to stack up wins.”

A 54-42 record is more than satisfactory considering the pitching injuries and early struggles of Alex Bregman and Dansby Swanson, who leads the team with 58 RBI, including 26 in a 10-game span.

Zig, meet zag.

The story of the ‘26 Cubs can’t be told without mentioning three things: Crow-Armstrong, the injuries and a bunch of guys few fans had heard of back in February who became important pieces to the playoff puzzle.

Everyone who claimed in spring training that Trent Thornton and Ryan Rolison would be high-leverage relievers for the Cubs down the stretch, raise your hand.

No, not you, Jed.

Bregman signed a five-year, $175 million deal and started slowly before surging in the final week before the break. Thornton and Rolison combined make under $2 million and have performed with next to no attention in the first half, joining Jacob Webb as late-inning options for Counsell.

Hoyer signed the 32-year-old Thornton to a one-year, $1 million deal on Jan. 23 after he posted a 4.89 ERA with the Seattle Mariners last year. An injury to Daniel Palencia forced Counsell to audible, and now Thornton has three saves and a 1.00 ERA over his last 10 appearances, after saving only one game in his previous 250 major-league appearances.

“I’m not sure if you saw this, Sully, but we don’t have a closer,” Counsell said Saturday when asked about Thornton’s usage at the end of a win in Cincinnati.

“Uh, yeah, I know. Impressive for someone who’s not a closer?”

“No, I mean that’s what I’m so proud of the guys for, actually,” Counsell said. “I kind of joke with them that when the phone rings they don’t actually know who it’s going to be. But they all do their jobs really well, and I couldn’t be happier with what they’re doing.”

Always with the joking, that’s Craig Counsell.

Thornton acted like he’d been closing for years, pumping his fist and screaming guttural sounds. He seemed to be enjoying the opportunity to close after a lifetime of almost no opportunities to close.

“I’m not going to complain at all,” he said.

That’s always a good idea when you’ve received a promotion.

The 32-year-old Rolison was sold by the Colorado Rockies to the Atlanta Braves last November after posting a 7.02 ERA in 31 appearances in his rookie year. He was then designated for assignment and claimed by the White Sox in December, then DFA’d again and selected off waivers by the Cubs in January.

The left-hander, who earns $780,000, is 5-1 with a 2.80 ERA in 32 appearances, limiting left-handed hitters to a .208 average.

Who knew?

“I didn’t know where I’d end up, being on the waiver wire and getting claimed and DFA’d, it was kind of frustrating,” Rolison said Sunday. “I knew my offseason was going really well, and I came into spring training with an open mind. The Cubs sat me down and said, ‘This is why we think you can be successful,’ and that sparked my positivity on the outlook of ‘26.”

The positivity paid off, and a mix of relievers who didn’t know they’d still be Cubs in mid-July are all part of the narrative.

“There’s been a lot of bumps and bruises along the way, but everyone is answering the call,” Thornton said.

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