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Japanese third baseman Munetaka Murakami is joining the Chicago White Sox on a two-year contract worth $34 million, CBS Sports has confirmed. The team has not yet announced the signing.
The $34 million contract is well beneath expectations for Murakami, pointing to a weak market for his services. It’s significantly less than the $90 million deal the Boston Red Sox handed Masataka Yoshida three years ago that remains the richest contract given to a Japanese position player.
Murakami, 26 in February, has been the top power hitter in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball the last several years, and that includes slugging 22 home runs in 56 games around elbow surgery and an oblique strain in 2025. He has averaged 42.6 home runs per 162 games with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, who made him available to MLB teams via the posting system this winter.
We ranked Murakami as the seventh-best free agent available this offseason. Here’s the write-up:
Murakami launched his name into orbit back in 2022, when he homered 56 times to break Sadaharu Oh’s single-season Nippon Professional Baseball record for a Japanese-born player. Clearly he has elite strength. Alas, the ensuing years haven’t been as kind. He swings and misses a ton, even within the zone, and his strikeout rate has cleared 28% three seasons in a row — NPB hasn’t experienced the same K-rate creep as MLB, making that one of the worst marks among regulars. There’ve long been questions about his viability at the hot corner too, with first base appearing as his long-term home. Murakami’s power and youth (he’ll turn 26 in February) will go a long way in making a team forgive those blemishes, with a left-handed Eugenio Suárez serving as a good outcome here.
Because he is 25, Murakami was able to sign a contract of any size this offseason, similar to Yoshinobu Yamamoto two years ago. Player younger than 25 are subject to baseball’s international bonus pools, severely limiting their earning potential. Roki Sasaki came to MLB through that process last offseason and signed a minor-league contract with a $6.5 million signing bonus.
The White Sox owe the Swallows a posting fee for signing Murakami. Here is the posting fee structure:
Contract worth less than $25 million: 20% of contract valueContract worth $25 million to $50 million: $5 million plus 17.5% of amount over $25 millionContract worth more than $50 million: $9.275 million plus 15% of amount over $50 million
That puts Murakami’s posting fee at just over $6.5 million.