Munetaka Murakami of the Yakult Swallows hits his 56th home run of the year in the last game of the Central League’s regular season at Jingu Stadium in Tokyo in October 2022. (Kyodo)
NEW YORK (Kyodo) — Yakult Swallows slugger Munetaka Murakami has been posted by the Central League club, and all 30 Major League Baseball clubs were notified of his availability Friday.
The official negotiation window will open from Saturday morning and run through Dec. 22, giving Murakami the opportunity to agree to a deal with an MLB club. The New York Yankees, New York Mets, Seattle Mariners, Philadelphia Phillies, San Francisco Giants and Boston Red Sox are all listed by MLB.com as potential suitors.
An Nippon Professional Baseball player can move to MLB as either a free agent or a posted player whose club agrees to accept a transfer fee if he signs abroad.
The 25-year-old joined the Swallows as their first draft pick in 2018 out of Kyushu Gakuin High School in his native Kumamoto Prefecture. He became NPB’s youngest Triple Crown winner in 2022 at 22.
His 56 home runs that year are the second most hit in a single NPB season, while he also batted .318 and had 134 RBIs to propel the Swallows to the CL pennant.
In 2023, Murakami hit a solo home run in Japan’s 3-2 win over the United States in the final of the World Baseball Classic.
The third baseman had to recover from an upper-body injury this year but still finished third on the CL home run list, hitting 22 in 56 games.