🔗 Share this article

In a major move for their rebuilding roster, the South Side team have officially added slugger Munetaka Murakami, completing a $34 million contract for the accomplished player.

Financial Terms and Incentives

The contract includes a substantial signing bonus, to be paid within 30 days, combined with compensation of $16M for the next season and seventeen million for the following year.

Additionally, Murakami's final-year pay may grow based on award achievements in 2026:

• $1 million for winning the league MVP award.
• $500K for placing as runner-up or in third place in MVP voting.
• A quarter-million for finishing fourth through 10th.
• $250,000 for being named the ROY honor.

The agreement provides that he will not be optioned to the minors without his permission and makes him a unrestricted player at the termination of the deal. Extra provisions include a dedicated interpreter and airfare between his home country and the States.

Compensation and Historical Context

As part of the acquisition, Chicago must pay a transfer fee of over $6.5 million to the Yakult Swallows, Murakami's longtime team in Japan's NPB. The Swallows get a supplemental fee of 15% triggered performance bonuses.

Murakami will become the fourth player from Japan to play for the Chicago franchise, in the footsteps of reliever Shingo Takatsu (2004-05), second baseman Tadahito Iguchi (2005-07), and fielder Kosuke Fukudome (2012). Notably, Takatsu previously coached Murakami back in Japan.

Career Highlights

Murakami, a lefty bat who turns 26 soon, enters a emerging lineup in Chicago that contains prospects like Colson Montgomery, Kyle Teel, and Chase Meidroth. The White Sox are coming off a last-place season, finishing last in the American League Central but representing a 19-game improvement from the year before campaign.

A two-time Central League MVP honors in 2021 and 2022, Murakami made history with a historic 2022 season where he hit 56 home runs, surpassing the single-season record for a NPB hitter formerly held by icon Sadaharu Oh. That year also made him the most youthful hitter ever to secure Japan's coveted Triple Crown.

His 2023 season was shortened to a partial schedule due to an side strain. Even with recording 64 times, he batted .273 with 22 home runs and 47 driven in.

Over his eight-year tenure with the Yakult club, Murakami has posted a .270 career batting average with 246 home runs, 647 RBI, and 977 strikeouts in nearly 900 games. Early in his career playing primarily at first, he has more recently played to the hot corner.

WBC Heroics

Murakami's heroics were on global view during the last World Baseball Classic. In the semi-final against Mexico, he hit a walk-off double that scored Shohei Ohtani and Masataka Yoshida for a thrilling one-run win. The next night in the title match against the United States, he hit a game-tying shot in the second inning, helping Japan's eventual 3-2 victory.

The new White Sox addition is slated to be formally introduced at a media availability on the coming Monday.