{"id":273379,"date":"2025-11-09T14:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T14:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/273379\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T14:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T14:22:10","slug":"munetaka-murakami-stats-as-japanese-slugger-posts-to-mlb-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/273379\/","title":{"rendered":"Munetaka Murakami stats as Japanese slugger posts to MLB market"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"play\"<\/p>\n

Alex Rodriguez explains why the Dodgers are good for baseball<\/p>\n

USA TODAY’s Ralphie Aversa chats with MLB legend Alex Rodriguez about the dominant nature of the Dodgers roster.<\/p>\n

Sports Seriously<\/p>\n

Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami is set to be posted by the Tokyo Yakult Swallows and will have 45 days to negotiate a contract<\/a> with a Major League Baseball team.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 25-year-old infielder has been one of Japan’s most prolific sluggers since debuting as a teenager in 2018, averaging 33 home runs in eight seasons. His best year came in 2022 when he hit 56 home runs with 134 RBIs, a .318 average and a 1.168 OPS. Murakami won his second Central League MVP award that season, going back-to-back after picking up the hardware \u2013 and a Japan Series title \u2013 in 2021.<\/p>\n

REQUIRED READING: World Series champion Dodgers take in Spurs vs. Lakers<\/a><\/p>\n

His 56 home runs in 2022 remains the NPB record for a Japanese-born player, surpassing now Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks chairman Sadaharu Oh’s previous record of 55 set in 1964. Wladimir Balentein now holds the overall record with 60 in 2013.<\/p>\n

Murakami has primarily played third base, but the left-handed hitter has 266 NPB games under his belt at first base as well and could be used at both corners in addition to designated hitter in MLB.<\/p>\n

Nobody questions Murakami’s power, but strikeouts are a huge concern. Murakami was limited to 69 games in 2025, but his 29.5% strikeout rate in 2024 would have ranked among the 10 worst in MLB, striking out 180 times in 610 plate appearances.<\/p>\n

Murakami helped Japan win the 2023 World Baseball Classic, homering in the championship game against Team USA pitcher Merrill Kelly<\/p>\n

Under the current posting system, an MLB club will owe Murakami’s previous team a posting fee that is 20% of the first $25 million in a guaranteed deal, 17.5% of the next $25 million and 15% beyond $50 million.<\/p>\n

Munetaka Murakami stats<\/p>\n

In 892 career NPB games, Murakami has 246 home runs with with a .270 average and .951 OPS.<\/p>\n

2020: 28 HR, 86 RBIs, 1.012 OPS2021: 39 HR, 112 RBIs, .974 OPS2022: 56 HR, 134 RBIs, 1.168 OPS2023: 31 HR, 84 RBIs, .875 OPS2024: 33 HR, 86 RBIs, .851 OPS2025: 24 HR, 52 RBIs, 1.051 OPS (in 69 games, including JPEL)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Rodriguez explains why the Dodgers are good for baseball USA TODAY’s Ralphie Aversa chats with MLB legend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[2872,158774,64,63,4034,14659,5138,941,78797,2873,2871,1187,7232,158773,6103,591,621,637,44,158771,158775,323,451,158772,439,158776,33372,5124,10549,17600,121353,588,17601,85,635,24942,11499,441,1720,143382],"class_list":["post-273379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-angeles","tag-antonio","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baseball","tag-classic","tag-dodgers","tag-japan","tag-kelly","tag-lakers","tag-los","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-merrill","tag-merrill-kelly","tag-mlb","tag-national","tag-national-sports","tag-news","tag-nippon","tag-nippon-professional-baseball","tag-overall","tag-overall-positive","tag-override","tag-positive","tag-positive-sentiment-override","tag-professional","tag-san","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-scores","tag-sentiment","tag-sport","tag-sport-scores-u0026-statistics","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-spurs","tag-statistics","tag-u0026","tag-world","tag-world-baseball-classic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}