Chicago’s No. 5 stepped on the plate. A couple of practice swings. Laser focus. Pitching was Ryan Thompson – the Diamondbacks’ reliever who had just entered the game. It only took a single pitch for Thompson to learn a valuable career lesson: if you make a mistake on Munetaka Murakami, he will make you pay. And surely, he did.
“I threw him one pitch, and he hit it 700 feet. If I had a longer at-bat, maybe I could figure him out,” said Thompson. “All we know is the way he's hitting here is different from the way he was hitting in Japan. His holes are not his holes anymore. Maybe why other teams weren't pursuing him is because he had different holes when he was with Japan. He’s changed his approach.”
Murakami swung at Thompson’s ball, sending it out of Chase Field. It went deep on the ride side, landing in the hands of a happy fan. He hit the ball at 110 mph, and the ball traveled 451 feet. His two-run home run improved the score to 7-10. Ultimately, the White Sox dropped the contest 7-11 before winning the final showdown 4-1.
Murakami didn’t homer in the final game against Arizona, snapping his streak of consecutive games with a home run at five. He tied the White Sox record, while also tying the most consecutive games with a home run mark by a rookie. He joined the elite company of Tyler Fitzgerald and Ron Kittle.
In elite company
That’s right – Murakami is competing in his first-ever MLB season, and he has taken the league by storm. The 26-year-old first baseman hit a home run in his first three games, then he added the five-game streak in April. So far, he’s suited up for 40 games and totaled 15 home runs, ranking third in the majors. Who are the two players currently tied for first place with 16? The reigning 2025 All-Star MVP Kyle Schwarber and legendary Aaron Judge, undeniably one of the greatest power hitters of his generation.
To put that into perspective, Schwarber is in his 12th season, and Judge is one year behind. Their numbers are spectacular, yet somewhat anticipated – veterans of their caliber holding resumés overflowing with accolades are expected to produce. To be among the best. Murakami is just getting started, tasting the highest baseball pedigree for the first time. Yet, he already looks like a seasoned MLB star. His explosive start has become one of the biggest stories in baseball.
Doubted and overlooked
Since he has signed with the White Sox, he’s been red hot. But before the pen touched the paper, it was the opposite – the process was slow, team after team passing on the Japanese prospect. The Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, Los Angeles Angels, and San Diego Padres were all in need of a first baseman, among others. They all said no to Murakami. Some teams believed they would be getting a designated hitter, and some questioned his strikeout numbers. His strikeout rate was more than 28 % in his last three seasons in Japan, and his 72.6 % in-zone contact would rank among the worst in the MLB in 2025.
“It was a bad miss by everyone,” one American League official said. “In-zone miss scares people, and it was hard to project that versus improved pitching. It's one of the blind spots of hitting projection models, so it winds up hurting the confidence for every team.”
“Guilty of weighing the strikeouts too much,” an NL executive added. “I probably did not give him enough of the benefit of the doubt about getting on base.” Simply put, organizations didn’t believe Murakami was good enough to shine and get the job done both offensively and defensively at the MLB level.
The power hitter spent eight seasons playing in the NPB, the Japanese professional baseball league. In 2022, Murakami became the first player in NPB history to hit five home runs in consecutive plate appearances. That year, he hit 56 home runs and took home the Triple Crown, a trophy awarded to a player who leads the league in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in (RBI). Murakami was the youngest player in history to secure the individual title. He was also named the NPB Central League MVP for the second straight year. In 2021, the slugger helped Japan to an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo, and two years later contributed to a World Baseball Classic championship.
His breakout season in the NPB caught the eyes of MLB scouts, and his name started coming up in front offices across the world. He kept blossoming; this offseason, Murakami was ranked among the top 10 free agents. Analysts projected him to sign approximately a five-year, $80 million contract. But this type of deal never happened, as teams expressed their concerns and bet on other players.
The gamble that paid off
Then, the White Sox took a chance on Murakami, signing him to a two-year, $34 million contract. And so far, he’s repaid their trust with immense interest, becoming an instant sensation and currently keeping Chicago in second place in the Central Division. Last year, the White Sox finished dead last, not only in their division but also in the American League.
“I know that there were concerns with the velocity, and with high-end velocity in this league, if you’ve got a hole, it just seems to get exposed,” said White Sox GM Chris Getz. “But he didn’t see much of that over there. And just because you haven’t seen it, doesn’t mean you can’t hit it.”
So far in his debut season, Murakami has hit .237 with 15 home runs and 29 runs batted in. He’s posted an OPS of .948. His numbers have proven that he belongs. And also, that others were wrong about him. Murakami believes he’s still only scratching the surface of what he’s capable of.
“It’s still a learning curve,” said Murakami through the team interpreter. “I’m still getting used to it, but I’m seeing the ball very well. It's about going through the daily routines in a very detailed way. There’s a lot of pitches that I face that are new. It’s about pre-studying and pre-analysis so when I get into the batter’s box, I’m ready to go.”
After years of struggling, Murakami can now propel the White Sox to winning and a first postseason appearance since 2021. Beyond the wins, Murakami also gives the franchise a chance to expand its global reach. After megastar and fellow Japanese Shohei Ohtani stole the show in Los Angeles after signing a 10-year, $700 million deal with the Dodgers and winning back-to-back World Series titles, the Dodgers became Japan’s team.
“So much of it in Japan is what your distribution is on television there. Their national network is dominated by the Dodgers. They've kind of become the nation’s team,” said Brooks Boyer, White Sox’s chief revenue and marketing officer. But with another superstar on the horizon, the nation could adopt a new favorite.
Beyond the sport
And it wouldn’t be just for his baseball craft. After just barely two months in the league, the world already knows he’s a top-notch person, too. On the first Friday of May, the White Sox beat the Padres 8-2 in the first contest of the three-game series. Instead of cooling off, showering, and rushing back to the hotel to recover and rest before the next matchup, Murakami took questions from both the US and Japanese media and later stopped to interact with two little boys, sons of a former White Sox second baseman, Gordon Beckham.
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“He still took 2 or 3 minutes with my kids to make their night because they knew No. 5 hit a home run, and they wanted to give him a high five. It shows who he is,” said Beckham.
Murakami’s name has already entered Rookie of the Year conversations. This season, nobody has captured MLB’s attention more than Murakami. The league was once skeptical about him – but no one is doubting him now. Instead, the league is watching a new standout on the rise.
