White Sox To Sign Munetaka Murakami

The White Sox are in agreement with infielder Munetaka Murakami on a two-year deal worth $34MM, according to a report from ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Passan adds that Murakami is expected to play first base in Chicago.

Murakami, 26 in February, arrives in the majors as perhaps the most anticipated NPB hitter to move stateside since Shohei Ohtani. The slugger set an NPB record with 56 home runs in a single season at 22 years old, and he continued to make an international name for himself with Team Japan during the 2023 World Baseball Classic. A career .270/.394/.557 hitter across 892 Central League games for the Yakult Swallows, Murakami boasts true 80-grade power that could completely change an up-and-coming White Sox lineup that already includes highly regarded youngsters like Colson Montgomery and Kyle Teel.

That combination of power and unusual youth for a free agent led many to believe that Murakami would be able to secure one of the most lucrative contracts of the offseason. On MLBTR’s annual Top 50 MLB Free Agents list published at the outset of the offseason, Murakami landed as the #4 free agent available with a predicted contract of $180MM over eight years. It was easy to imagine at least one team being willing to roll the dice on Murakami’s tantalizing upside in order to lock him up for his entire prime, but teams were more hesitant to commit to Murakami than expected. Few teams were publicly connected to the slugger, and reports from all corners of the baseball world indicated that teams were feeling gun-shy about his contact rate in NPB, which would’ve been the lowest in baseball in the majors last year if carried over.

While teams weren’t willing to go to the high levels expected when Murakami was first posted, it does appear that he may have left some guaranteed money on the table in taking this deal. Passan reports that some teams did try to get involved in Murakami’s market by offering long-term deals with lower annual salaries. That sort of deal would have guaranteed Murakami a longer runway to work things out at the big league level, but would have limited the financial upside available to him. Instead, he took a short-term deal that will offer him a healthy annual guarantee that’s on par with the AAV of the five-year deal Murakami’s countryman Seiya Suzuki signed with the Cubs across town five years ago.

That comes with just two guaranteed years in the majors, but if Murakami is able to establish himself he’ll head into free agency ahead of his age-28 season. That should leave him in line for a far more substantial payday during the 2027-28 offseason, should he prove himself capable as the sort of middle-of-the-order power bat he has the potential to be. For a player looking to adjust to the majors, it’s hard to imagine a more forgiving environment than the south side of Chicago. The White Sox have average 108 losses per season over the last three years and posted arguably the worst season in MLB history back in 2024. While young players like Montgomery and Teel have begun to impact the major league roster, expectations for the club could hardly be lower at this point.

While any dreams Murakami may have had of hoisting a World Series trophy in his rookie season as a big leaguer are likely to be dashed by his decision to sign with the White Sox, playing on a team with low expectations for this year should allow him a low-pressure environment to make any adjustments to his game that might be necessary in order to maximize his success without the risk of losing his spot in the lineup to another player in the midst of a pennant race. The White Sox seem to want Murakami to be able to focus on maximizing his offense as much as possible, as the longtime NPB third baseman will be moving to first base in Chicago. Scouts nearly universally expressed skepticism about is ability to handle the hot corner at the big league level, so a move to first base should put less pressure on Murakami to prove himself as a defender and allow him to focus more fully on his work at the plate.

Should Murakami successfully prove himself in the majors, he would help anchor a budding core of young hitters for the White Sox. Montgomery and Teel both enjoyed excited seasons at up-the-middle positions last year, and they’ll be joined in the lineup by players like third baseman Miguel Vargas, second baseman Chase Meidroth, and catcher/DH Edgar Quero who enjoyed seasons last year that made them look like solid complementary pieces for the future. Luis Robert Jr. also figures to offer the Sox some star power alongside Murakami if he’s healthy enough to handle something close to a full slate of games in center field and remains on the team amid persistent trade rumors.

Taken together, it’s easy to see Murakami as the centerpiece of an offseason that has seen the White Sox take small steps towards a return to competitiveness at the big league level. The NPB star isn’t the only player the White Sox have deigned to add to the roster this winter; lefty Anthony Kay signed a two-year deal worth $12MM after his own successful stint in Japan, and the club is reportedly among the teams interested in former Rays closer Pete Fairbanks, as well. Those moves are unlikely to vault Chicago into a playoff spot by themselves, especially in a competitive AL Central where the Tigers and Guardians made it to October with Kansas City putting together a very aggressive offseason in their own right.

Immediate playoff contention, however, isn’t likely to be the expectation; it’s not often that a team qualifies for the playoffs the year after losing 100 games, much less two years after losing 120. Instead, these additions should allow the White Sox to foster a more competitive environment for their young core as they reach the majors and, if things go ell, build towards playoff contention in 2027 and beyond while reinvigorating fans who have been left wanting by the team’s latest rebuild, which saw the club part with beloved players like Lucas Giolito and Garrett Crochet.

These steps forward also allow the White Sox to pull their payroll out of the league’s basement. Following the Murakami signing, RosterResource projects the club for an $84MM payroll in 2026, a figure that jumps up to nearly $102MM for luxury tax purposes. That’s more or less in line with last year’s $85MM payroll and pulls the White Sox just out of the bottom five in the majors at this point. Of course, that figure is still extremely modest and leaves plenty of room for a team in a large market like Chicago to add additional salary, whether that’s a late-inning arm like Fairbanks or perhaps a veteran starting pitcher who can help anchor the club’s rotation. It should also be noted that the White Sox will pay a posting fee to the Swallows as a result of signing Murakami. That posting fee figures to land at approximately $6.6MM, given the relatively modest total guarantee Murakami landed.