How White Sox’s Munetaka Murakami became an instant sensation

Chicago–it only took one pitch Arizona Diamondbacks preventive Ryan Thompson How to Know How Many Pitchers This Season: If You Make a Mistake munetaka murakamiYou are going to pay for it.

Thompson said, “I bowled him a ball and he bowled 700 feet. If I had batted longer, I might have been able to figure him out.”

26 year old chicago white sox The rookie has taken the league by storm through the first six weeks of the season, combining epic blasts with a keen eye at the plate. Murakami is one homer behind aaron judge Tied for the MLB lead with a .369 on-base percentage and 14 home runs with 55 strikeouts. So far, he has been the epitome of a three-true-results player.

“We all know the way he’s hitting it here is different than the way he was hitting it in Japan,” Thompson told ESPN shortly after delivering a 451-foot blast to Murakami. “His holes aren’t his holes anymore. Maybe the reason why other teams weren’t pursuing him was because he had different holes when he was with Japan. He’s changed his approach.”

Every rival is trying to outdo Murakami during a hot start that defies computer models and scouting reports. After several teams passed him up for “perfect storm” reasons this off-season, as one scout put it, Murakami signed a two-year, $34 million contract with Chicago – and quickly spoiled the attention of more than a dozen front offices. He hit home runs in his first three major league games, then added a five-game home run streak in mid-April.

Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said, “He’s done a great job of maintaining strength and flexibility. He looks very physical in the box.” “On top of that, he’s showing a certain readiness to hit every pitch. He didn’t miss against us. Everyone said there was a lot of swing-and-miss but that wasn’t the case against us. The league is taking notice.”

Despite his eye-opening start, Murakami remains steadfast in his desire to get better. He believes that he is just working on the surface to make adjustments in key subjects.

“It’s still a learning curve,” he said through a team interpreter. “I’m still getting used to it, but I’m seeing the ball pretty well.”

‘It was a bad mistake by everyone’

Murakami emerged 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 at the age of 22 in 2022. Three years later, when he was drafted to MLB by the Yakult Swallows, Murakami was ranked among the top 10 free agents of the offseason and was offered a five-year, $80 million contract by ESPN’s Kelly McDaniel. But that kind of long-term proposal never came to fruition.

Throw an arrow at a list of MLB teams and you’ll likely hit the team that passed on signing Murakami in the winter. Shortly afterward he signed his deal with the White Sox. pete alonso left it mets For baltimore orioles – But New York went in the other direction, signing the veteran infielder. George Polanco To play first base. So far this season, the Mets corner infielders have only six home runs combined. boston red sox, Los Angeles Angels, As And the Diamondbacks were among other teams that said no thanks to pursuing Murakami despite having a need at first or third base. San Diego Padres According to league sources, they also liked him, but were restrained from spending for most of the winter. In fact, according to one National League executive, many teams believed that adding Murakami would be “buying the DH”.

Despite his power production in Japan, it was another number – along with questions about his defensive ability – that scared off potential contenders: his strikeout total. Murakami struck out 977 times in 892 career NPB games, including 180 times during the 2024–24 season. His strikeout rate was over 28% in his final three seasons in Japan and his 72.6% in-zone contact rate would have been the second-worst in MLB in 2025.

An American League official said, “It was a bad mistake for everybody.” “The in-zone miss scares people, and it was hard to project it versus better pitching. It’s one of the blind spots in the projection model to hit, so it hurts every team’s confidence.”

One NL executive said: “Guilty of giving too much importance to strikeouts. I probably didn’t give him enough benefit of the doubt about getting on base.”

Murakami drew over 100 walks in his three NPB seasons, and his knack for getting on base in addition to hitting long balls was appealing to front offices, who considered him this winter. The White Sox were one of those teams that believed many of the questions raised by other clubs were due to a lack of opportunity – not a lack of ability.

White Sox GM Chris Gaetz said, “I know there were concerns about velocity, and with the high-end velocity in this league, if you have a hole, it’s exposed.” “But he didn’t see a lot of it there. And just because you haven’t seen it, doesn’t mean you can’t see it.”

Given where they were in their rebuild, after three consecutive 100-loss seasons, the White Sox were also in a better position to take a risk on Murakami than contenders looking for a key player, and they signed him just before their posting window ended in late December.

White Sox would like to make money from Murakami’s success Los Angeles Dodgers He has grown a following in Japan through the stardom of yoshinobu yamamoto And shohei ohtani But know that it will be difficult to break into the market – especially with a player on a two-year deal.

“The biggest hurdle is the amount of money spent in L.A.,” said Brooks Boyer, White Sox chief revenue/marketing officer. “A lot of it in Japan is your distribution on television there. The Dodgers dominate their national networks. They’ve kind of become the country’s team.”

‘I see comparisons to Kyle Schwarber’

Murakami’s move to MLB not only meant adjusting to facing new high-velocity types of pitching on a daily basis, Chicago’s desire to use him at third base – not first, where he had played the majority of his professional career – also meant learning the ins and outs of a new position.

He worked tirelessly on it with multiple trainers on a daily basis in spring training. He started out OK, but committed only one error while ranking near the bottom of the AL in zone rating.

“It still goes back to the determination to prove something,” Gaetz said. “You never really know what a player has in their DNA and what they’re trying to do.”

But it is in the batter’s box that Murakami has been attracting attention with every swing this season. He is the only player in MLB to hit multiple home runs on pitches at or above 98 mph, and his nine home runs on hard pitches – fastballs/sinkers/cutters – are also the most in the game.

His 22% chase rate ranked 22nd out of 177 qualified players and helped him become the first player in MLB history with 10 home runs and 20 walks in his first 25 career games. That combination of power and patience has produced comps for some of the best three-out true-outcome sluggers in the game.

“I see the comparison kyle schwarber“Diamondbacks pitcher mike soroka Said. “Talk about a three-true-outside player. … There’s nothing he can’t hit. Keep him guessing. Smart hitters like him don’t seem worried. It’s pretty obvious he has a good idea at the plate.”

The fast start has surprised some, but Murakami’s teammates have seen his potential since the early days of spring training and are becoming accustomed to the long ball — and an approach that has helped Chicago rise in the standings.

“He signed to win here,” White Sox pitcher davis martin Said. “You see that intensity in the dugout, in the middle of the inning. After a homer, he’s yelling at everybody. He’s put a lot of life into this clubhouse. … It’s fun. He’s learning English and we’re learning Japanese.”

While his profile rises with every home run, Murakami sticks to what he knows: his routine. This is harsh. In fact, he likes to give interviews after games. There is a lot of work to do in advance, to prepare for what many are dubbing the “Mune Show.”

“It’s about carrying out daily routines in a very detailed way,” Murakami said. “There are a lot of pitches I face that are new. It’s about pre-study and pre-analysis so when I get to the batter’s box, I’m ready to go.”

And, as pitchers who have faced Murakami have found out, when the White Sox sensation steps into the box, all it takes is one swing to turn a game.

“I think a lot of teams will be kicking themselves that they didn’t try harder to sign him,” the Arizona Diamondbacks starter said. merrill kelly. “I think there was some fear that it wouldn’t translate into big league pitching. In my opinion, if you win the Triple Crown, in arguably the second-best league in the world, you can obviously hit.”