Inside Chicago White Sox's Calculated Gamble on Japanese Star Munetaka Murakami

The Chicago White Sox generated a lot of buzz in Major League Baseball by signing free-agent slugger Munetaka Murakami, a move they made official Monday at a press conference at Rate Field.

It rates as a surprise that Murakami left Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan and signed for two years and $34 million to play first base for the White Sox. Those analyzing the free-agent field projected at the outset that Murakami would make a bigger splash (more like $100-$150 million) with a longer deal somewhere. At those prices, it would need to be somewhere else beside Jerry Reinsdorf's team, which has never signed a free agent for more than $75 million.

The White Sox have been one of the worst teams in the league since 2023, and might have been the worst team ever in 2024, but their direction seems to be pointing another way. And not just because Reinsdorf recently laid out a path to sell the team. Earlier in December, the White Sox came away with the first pick in the next MLB Draft after a lottery. And now they have come away with Murakami who, at first glance, looks like an early Christmas gift from the rest of the league.

Murakami, who turns 26 in February, was one of the top power hitters in NPB, hitting 265 home runs in just over a thousand games for the Yakult Swallows. He won the triple crown in 2022 at age 22 by hitting a league-record 56 homers. In 2023, he was a key hitter for Japan when they won the World Baseball Classic. Slowed by an oblique injury, he still hit 22 homers in just 56 games this past season.

Murakami seems to have a big personality, too, connecting with White Sox fans by speaking some English at his press conference, and saying he didn't care how many games the team lost before he got to town because things were going to be different.

Murakami made another statement by donating $10,000 in gift certificates for groceries, the White Sox said, to 100 South Side families through the St. James Food Pantry. Murakami also donated another $10,000 in cash to the pantry. No, it's not a huge portion of his baseball salary, but the kind gesture will help multiple people be less hungry around the holidays.

It's been 20 years since the White Sox added a player from Japan, which is odd, because the most recent one helped them win the World Series. Tadahito Iguchi started at second base for the White Sox in 2005, when they won it all for the first time in 88 years. Not that we should expect the White Sox to go from three straight 100-loss seasons to the World Series in 2026, but Murakami would seem to bring them closer than they were yesterday.

Murakami does bring some caveats. 

It is possible the league's collective hesitation with committing bigger money to Murakami has to do with his poor results hitting the fastest fastballs in NPB. Making consistent contact on high velocity has been a weak spot for him. Overall as he's aged, his strikeout rate has been rising and his walk rate has been dropping. Murakami's batting lines for the White Sox might end up looking more like Joey Gallo at his peak than, say, the best power hitter to come from Japan to North America, Hideki Matsui. Still, for a team that hasn't spent much on payroll the past few seasons (or even one that has spent a lot), it's not a big financial risk.

And perhaps something got lost in translation and Murakami will be the star hitter the White Sox expect. A lot of eyes will be on him, and the White Sox, in 2025. Many of them from across the Pacific. It will be fun, at least for a while, to see what dimensions Murakami will bring to MLB and the White Sox. His first impression rates an "A."