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CHICAGO – It only took one pitch Arizona Diamondbacks reliever Ryan Thompson To learn what many pitchers have this season: if you make a mistake Munetaka MurakamiYou’re going to pay for it.
“I threw him a pitch, and he hit it 700 feet. If my at-bat had been longer, maybe I could have found him,” Thompson said.
26 years old Chicago White Sox The rookie has taken the league by storm in the first six weeks of the season, combining epic outbursts with a sharp eye at the plate. Murakami is one homer behind Aaron is the judge To go along with a .369 on-base percentage and 55 strikeouts for the MLB lead with 14 home runs. So far, he is the epitome of the three-true-outcome player.
“We just know the way he’s hitting it here is different than the way he was hitting it in Japan,” Thompson told ESPN after letting off a 451-foot blast off Murakami. “His holes aren’t his holes anymore. Why aren’t other teams following him, because he had different holes when he was with Japan. He’s changed his approach.”
Every opponent trying to figure out Murakami is off to a hot start that has defied computer models and scouting reports. After several teams passed on him this offseason in what one scout called a “perfect storm,” Murakami signed a two-year, $34 million contract with Chicago — and quickly made more than a dozen front offices look bad. He homered in his first three major league games, then added a five-game home run streak in mid-April.
“He’s done a great job of maintaining strength and flexibility. He looks very physical in the box,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “On top of that, there’s a certain preparation that he shows to hit every pitch. He didn’t miss against us. Everybody says there’s a lot of swing-and-miss but we didn’t have that. The league is taking notice.”
Despite his eye opening, Murakami is steadfast in his desire to improve. He believes he is just scratching the surface when it comes to adjusting to the majors.
“It’s still a learning curve,” he said through the team’s interpreter. “I’m still getting used to it, but I’m seeing the ball very well.”
‘It was a bad miss by everyone’
Murakami appeared on the radar of major league teams when he hit 56 home runs and became the youngest Triple Crown winner in Japanese professional baseball history as a 22-year-old in 2022. Three years later, when he was posted to MLB by the Yakult Swallows, Murakami ranked among the top 10 projects in the offseason and was among the top 10 projects of the year. $80 million contract by Kiley McDaniel of ESPN. But such a long-term offer never materialized.
Throw a dart at the list of MLB teams and you’ll likely hit one that managed to sign Murakami this winter. He signed his contract with the White Sox not long after Pete Alonso the rest Mets for Baltimore Orioles — but New York went the other way, signing the veteran infielder Jorge Polanco to play first base. So far this season, Mets corner infielders have hit just six home runs. D Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Angels, A’s And the Diamondbacks were among other teams that didn’t thank Murakami for pursuing him despite needing first or third base. D San Diego Padres League sources said he also liked him, but spending was stagnant for most of the winter. In fact, many teams believed adding Murakami would be “buying a DH,” according to one National League executive.
Despite his power production in Japan, it was another number — coupled with questions about his defensive ability — that scared off potential suitors: his strikeout total. Murakami hit 977 times in 892 career NPB games, including 180 times in a subpar 2024 season. His strikeout rate was over 28% in each of his last three seasons in Japan, and his 72.6% in-zone contact rate would have been second-worst in MLB in 2025.
“It was a bad miss for everybody,” an American League official said. “In-zone misses scare people, and it’s been hard to project against advanced pitching. It’s a blind spot in hitting projection models, so it hurts confidence for every team.”
An NL executive added: “Guilty of weighing strikeouts too much. I probably didn’t give him enough benefit of the doubt about getting on base.”
Murakami has more than 100 walks in three of his NPB seasons, and his ability to stay on base while hitting the long ball appealed to front offices who considered him this winter. The White Sox were one of those teams, believing many of the questions raised by other clubs stemmed from a lack of opportunity — not a lack of ability.
“I know there were concerns about velocity, and with the high-end velocity in this league, if you’ve got a hole, it just seems to unravel,” White Sox GM Chris Gaetz said. “But he didn’t see much of it there. And just because you didn’t see it, doesn’t mean you couldn’t hit it.”
Where they were in their rebuild, coming off three straight 100-loss seasons, the White Sox were in a better position than competitors looking for a key player to take a chance on Murakami, and they signed him just before his posting window ended in late December.
The White Sox would love to monetize Murakami’s success Los Angeles Dodgers Through stardom, their following grew in Japan Yoshinobu Yamamoto And Shohei Ohtani But I know it will be difficult to break into the market — especially with a player on a two-year contract.
“The big hurdle is the amount of money spent in L.A.,” said Brooks Boyer, the White Sox’s chief revenue/marketing officer. “A lot of it in Japan is your distribution over there on television. The Dodgers dominate their national network. They’ve kind of become the country team.”
‘I can see the Kyle Schwarber comparison’
Murakami’s move to MLB not only means adjusting to facing a new high-velocity type of pitching on a daily basis, but Chicago’s willingness to use him at third base — not first, where he played most of his professional career — means learning the ins and outs of a new position.
He worked tirelessly on it in spring training with multiple coaches surrounding him every day. He was OK at first, committing just one error while ranking near the bottom of the AL in zone rating.
“It still goes back to the determination to prove something,” Getz said. “You never know what’s baked into a player’s DNA and what they’re trying to do.”
But it’s in the batter’s box that Murakami is turning heads with every swing this season. He is the only player in MLB to hit multiple home runs on pitches 98 mph or faster, and his nine home runs on hard pitches — fastballs/sinkers/cutters — are also the most in the game.
His 22% chase rate ranked 22nd among 177 eligible players and helped him become the first player in MLB history with 10 home runs and 20 walks through his first 25 career games. This combination of power and endurance has produced the comps of some of the best three-hit sluggers in the sport.
“I can see the comparison Kyle Schwarber“Diamondbacks pitcher Mike Soroka said “Talk about a three-true-outcome player. … There’s not one thing he can’t hit. Guess him. Smart hitters like him don’t seem bothered. It’s pretty clear he has a good sense at the plate.”
The fast start has come as a bit of a surprise, but Murakami’s teammates have seen his potential since the first day of spring training and are getting used to the long ball — and an attitude that has helped Chicago climb the standings.
“He signed to win here,” the White Sox pitcher David Martin said “You see that intensity between innings, in the dugout. After the homer, he’s yelling at everybody. He’s injected a lot of life into this clubhouse. … It’s fun. He’s learning English and we’re learning Japanese.”
Although his profile grows with each home run, Murakami sticks to what he knows: his routine. It is rigid. In fact, he likes to give interviews after games. In advance, there is a lot of work to be done in preparation for what many are dubbing the “Mune Show”.
“It’s about going through daily routines in a very detailed way,” Murakami said. “There are a lot of pitches that I’m new to facing. It’s about pre-study and pre-analysis, so when I get in the batter’s box, I’m ready to go.”
And, as pitchers facing Murakami have found, when the White Sox sensation steps into the box, it only takes one swing to turn a game around.
“I think a lot of teams are going to be kicking themselves that they didn’t try harder to sign him,” the Arizona Diamondbacks starter said. Meryl Kelly. “I think there was some fear that it wouldn’t translate to big league pitching. In my opinion, if you win the Triple Crown, arguably the second-best league in the world, you can definitely hit.”
