as the top potential suitor<\/a>. There are few teams able to shoulder the financial demands of premier free agents like Murakami and Tucker, and New York \u2014 which shelled out a record-breaking $765 million to acquire Juan Soto in 2024 \u2014 clearly has the ability to pay him. Assuming Murakami ends up signing a contract worth $25 million annually, he\u2019d take up more than a quarter of the payroll on 16 of the league\u2019s 30 teams last season. Realistically, it\u2019s the big teams in the big markets who will end up chasing him.<\/p>\nMore than any of the other big-market teams, the Mets need a power-hitting corner infielder. Let\u2019s take a look at the other top five teams by 2025 payroll: the Dodgers have Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy to cover those positions, the Philadelphia Phillies have Bryce Harper and Alec Bohm, the New York Yankees have Paul Goldschmidt and Ryan McMahon, and the Chicago Cubs have Michael Busch and Matt Shaw. Murakami could be better than any of them, but each of those teams has reasons to be satisfied with its incumbents. The New York Mets are the exception.<\/p>\n
When Pete Alonso signed with the Baltimore Orioles, the Mets lost a player who\u2019s appeared in all but 24 of their games over the last seven seasons, hitting 264 home runs and making five All-Star appearances. New York is likely to enter the 2026 season with Mark Vientos, who amassed negative-0.2 WAR in 2025 and slashed just .233\/.289\/.413, as its starting first baseman. It\u2019s not like it was getting much on defense anyway \u2014 Vientos ranked in just the 15th percentile in fielding run value and Alonso in the eighth percentile \u2014 so Murakami wouldn\u2019t represent a downgrade. Both Alonso and Vientos, just like Murakami, strike out a lot. <\/p>\n
The Mets already have a strong third baseman in Brett Baty, so they could pass on Murakami if they believe he\u2019s better suited to stay at the position he\u2019s played since 2021, but many MLB scouts believe he\u2019d be best as either a first baseman or designated hitter in the long run. If New York is one of those teams, he could be a natural replacement for Alonso. The Mets didn\u2019t offer Alonso a new, long-term contract in part because he\u2019s 31 years old, but Murakami is just 25. They also have Murakami\u2019s 2021 Olympic teammate, Kodai Senga, on the roster.<\/p>\n
2. San Diego Padres<\/p>\n
Like New York, San Diego has a recent history of handing out mega-contracts to free agents, and while some of them have flopped \u2014 Xander Bogaerts\u2019 11-year, $280 million contract, Yu Darvish\u2019s six-year, $108 million deal, and Manny Machado\u2019s 11-year, $350 million pact all represent major question marks moving forward \u2014 the 14-year, $340 million contract they gave to Fernando Tat\u00eds Jr. has looked good so far. The Seidler family has committed to going all-in to maximize the roster in 2026 as the Padres seek to break Los Angeles\u2019 stranglehold on the NL West. If the Seidlers ultimately sell the team, new ownership might not be so eager to shell out a mega-deal for Murakami, but for now, recent history suggests that San Diego would be willing to pay him.<\/p>\n
Machado is entrenched at third base, and with a .275\/.335\/.460 slash line and 27 homers in 2025, he\u2019s still performing well enough that his contract isn\u2019t yet a massive albatross. However, the Padres have questions elsewhere in the corner infield: Luis Arr\u00e1ez, who manned first base after San Diego acquired him in a 2024 midseason trade, is currently a free agent, and the Padres have shown no indications that they\u2019re interested in re-signing him. Arr\u00e1ez\u2019s issues are very different from Murakami\u2019s: his 3.1% strikeout rate this season is less than one-eighth Murakami\u2019s, but he hit just eight home runs and walked only 34 times. Defensively, he grades out slightly better as a third baseman than Murakami and slightly worse as a first baseman, but both are extremely poor. If San Diego wants to avoid Murakami\u2019s defensive questions entirely, it could also use an upgrade at DH: Gavin Sheets has been worth negative-2.1 WAR throughout his five-year career.<\/p>\n
The Padres are in desperate need of a power bat. Despite ranking a solid seventh in batting average and ninth in on-base percentage last season, they finished ninth-to-last in slugging percentage because they hit the third-fewest home runs. The fact that Petco Park is one of the league\u2019s most pitcher-friendly is certainly a factor, but it doesn\u2019t tell the whole story: the Seattle Mariners (third in home runs), Mets (fifth), and Cubs (sixth) all play in pitcher-friendly parks. Plus, San Diego has regular direct flights to Tokyo-Narita International Airport, which has historically been a factor for Japanese free agents.<\/p>\n
3. Los Angeles Dodgers<\/p>\n
Naturally, the Dodgers have to be mentioned in any chase for a Japanese free agent. Los Angeles has been linked to both Murakami and Okamoto, and it has clearly created a culture attractive to Japanese players. In the past, the Dodgers have gone all-out to attract high-profile free agents, adding Japanese-style toilets to the clubhouse during the Sasaki sweepstakes and adding lots of benefits to Yamamoto\u2019s contract. The World Series MVP added fuel to Murakami rumors by having dinner with him in Tokyo shortly after the Fall Classic concluded. <\/p>\n
Los Angeles doesn\u2019t have an explicit need for Murakami\u2019s services, but it also didn\u2019t have an explicit need for a top-quality starter before signing Sasaki and Blake Snell last offseason or for two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal, about whom it\u2019s been in discussions with the Detroit Tigers. As the two-time defending World Series champions, any signing that the Dodgers make from here on out will be pure luxury, especially after shoring up their biggest issue with former New York closer Edwin D\u00edaz. But Los Angeles can afford luxury, as it has had a top-10 payroll in baseball in each of the last 14 seasons. <\/p>\n
On the field, the fit is murky for both sides, but there\u2019s a case to be made that a long-term partnership would make sense. Murakami probably wouldn\u2019t be an everyday player in 2026, as the Dodgers have Freeman at first base, Muncy at third base, and Shohei Ohtani as the designated hitter, but he might be in 2027 and onwards. Los Angeles does have a need for a corner outfielder in 2026, especially with Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez aging, but a three-game sample size surely isn\u2019t enough to convince the Dodgers that Murakami is viable and they\u2019d surely rather fill that hole with Tucker or Bellinger instead. <\/p>\n
If Los Angeles signs Murakami, it\u2019d be a long-term play aimed at replacing either corner infielder. Muncy is still a stellar power bat who walks at an elite rate when healthy, but he\u2019s missed significant time with injuries over the last two seasons and will be 36 by the time the 2026 playoffs start. Plus, while Freeman has fewer health concerns and is under contract for one more season than Muncy, he\u2019s already 36. The Dodgers\u2019 World Series window might not come crashing to a halt any time soon \u2014 having the 31-year-old Ohtani, a 27-year-old Yamamoto, and a 24-year-old Sasaki is a good way of guaranteeing that \u2014 but they could extend it by replacing either corner infielder with the 25-year-old Murakami.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Griffin Wong breaks down the teams most likely to come away with IF Munetaka Murakami when MLB Free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,27853,85],"class_list":["post-354773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-rail","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354773","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=354773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}