Japanese star third baseman Munetaka Murakami is getting into the posting system Friday, formally beginning the method of one of the vital anticipated free companies of the winter, sources instructed ESPN.
Murakami, 25, owns the single-season house run file for a Japanese participant in Nippon Skilled Baseball, having hit 56 in 2022 to interrupt Sadaharu Oh’s file 55, which was set in 1964. A prolific energy hitter, Murakami leaves the Tokyo Yakult Swallows with 246 house runs over his eight seasons in Japan.
His slugging prowess is anticipated to attract widespread curiosity amongst Main League Baseball groups this winter. Murakami’s 45-day window to signal will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday, sources stated, guaranteeing he’ll signal with an enormous league workforce earlier than it expires at 5 p.m. on Dec. 22.
Murakami, who can also play first base, is among the jewels of a deep class of gamers anticipated to return from Asia this winter. Others anticipated to affix MLB groups by way of the posting system — which facilitates the switch of gamers whose rights workforce nonetheless management from Japan and Korea to MLB — and worldwide free company embody right-hander Tatsuya Imai, first baseman Kazuma Okamoto and right-hander Kona Takahashi. Additionally anticipated to return to MLB are right-hander Cody Ponce, who went 17-1 with a 1.89 ERA within the Korea Baseball Group, and left-handers Foster Griffin and Anthony Kay, each of whom pitched in Japan.
A left-handed hitter, Murakami performed in simply 56 video games this yr resulting from an indirect damage however nonetheless whacked 22 house runs with a .273/.379/.663 slash line. Whereas issues over his propensity to strikeout, and significantly his in-zone swing-and-miss fee, will give groups pause, Murakami’s age and upside are each tantalizing sufficient that his free company is anticipated to show right into a frenzy.
The addition of Japanese gamers has fueled the final two championships, with Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto main the Los Angeles Dodgers to World Collection victories. Los Angeles assured greater than $1 billion to signal Ohtani as a free agent and pluck Yamamoto from the Orix Buffaloes by way of the posting system.
MLB groups that signal gamers by way of posting should pay a payment to the Asian workforce from which the participant transfers: 20% for the primary $25 million, 17.5% for the following $25 million and a further 15% on each greenback above $50 million.
Murakami is extensively anticipated to fetch a nine-figure deal, with a posting payment of at the very least $16.9 million on prime of it. Excessive-ranking MLB executives scouted a number of video games of Murakami this season and emerged impressed, in response to sources. In his eight seasons with the Swallows following his debut as an 18-year-old, Murakami hit .270/.394/.557 with a stroll fee of better than 16% and a strikeout fee nearing 26%.