Japanese star Murakami signs with the White Sox

Posted December 21, 2025 12:43 pm

By Cody Stavenhagen and Will Sammon

Japanese star Munetaka Murakami signed with the White Sox on a two-year, $34 million deal on Sunday, the team announced.

The straight two-year deal positions Murakami to re-enter the market as a 28-year-old free agent. The Athletic previously detailed why such a short-term pact seemed like a distinct possibility. Some teams harbored concerns over Murakami’s defense and penchant for swinging and missing, making a long-term deal a risk.

The most famous name in this year’s class of players from Nippon Professional Baseball, Murakami smashed 56 home runs with the Yakult Swallows in 2022, breaking Sadaharu Oh’s prestigious single-season record for a player born in Japan that had stood since 1964. Murakami officially entered free agency via the posting system on Nov. 8 and had 45 days to reach an agreement with an MLB club.

Murakami, who ranked No. 17 on The Athletic’s Big Board and was projected by Tim Britton to receive an eight-year contract worth $158.5 million, rose to international fame with Team Japan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. The left-handed slugger hit a walk-off double to beat Mexico in the semifinal and homered off Merrill Kelly in the championship game.

At only 25 years old, some scouts have graded Murakami’s power at an elite 70 or 80 on MLB’s scouting scale. But questions linger about how his game will translate to MLB soil.

No concern looms larger than Murakami’s swing-and-miss rates. NPB is a lower strikeout environment than MLB, yet Murakami’s strikeout rates have hovered close to 30% for each of the past three years. Some evaluators see holes in his elongated swing that could be exploited by top-end velocity or breaking stuff. Per FanGraphs, Murakami’s contact rate against fastballs 93 mph or greater is only 63% since the 2022 season. In 2025, his contact rate against secondary pitches was only 51%.

“That just kind of is who he is, so the strikeout percentage is going to be there,” a National League Pacific Rim scout told The Athletic in November. “It’s just going to be, ‘Can he get to enough home-run damage to make it worth it?’ Is it going to be closer to Kyle Schwarber production or Joey Gallo production?”

Able to play both third and first base, scouts generally rate Murakami as a below-average defender best suited for first base in MLB, both raising the bar for his bat and adding another question to his game.

Murakami is also coming off a string of injuries: A broken toe that ended his 2024 season, then an offseason elbow surgery, then an oblique injury and subsequent setback that limited him to 56 games in the Central League in 2025.

Despite a handful of red flags, Murakami is a still-young hitter who offers tremendous upside. He has the power to capture eyeballs across the sport, and the White Sox were willing to pay a premium for his services.