Japanese third baseman Munetaka Murakami is set to be posted on Friday, beginning one of the most high profile free agent periods of the offseason.
The 25 year old is the single season home run record holder after mashing 56 long balls in 2022, breaking a nearly 60 year old record in Nippon Professional Baseball. Officially, his 45-day signing window will kick off at 8am ET on Saturday. As a result, he will ink a big league contract no later than December 22nd, just in time for the holiday season.
Murakami’s left handed bat is expected to draw interest from virtually every club across Major League Baseball this offseason, as franchises attempt to replicate the level of success the Dodgers have had since adding Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki.
Despite every team theoretically being able to sign him, many of the smaller market or cost conscious teams will bow out of the race to acquire the slugger relatively early. Any team that signs a player via the posting system must pay a fee to the player’s former team: 20% for the first $25M, 17.5% for the next $25M and an additional 15% on every dollar above $50M.
With Murakami widely expected to sign a nine-figure deal, suitors who don’t have deep pocketed owners are unlikely to get past the initial stages of negotiations.
Since debuting as an 18-year-old, Murakami has posted a slash line of .270/.394/.557 with a walk rate of 16% and a strikeout rate of 25%. A two time MVP and four time All-Star, he’s led the Central League in home runs twice over his young career. The power is real, but so is his swing and miss rate. However with many MLB clubs focusing more on game changing swings as opposed to contact hitters, there’s likely never been a better time for Murakami to make the jump to North America.
As always, the Dodgers are rumoured to be in the mix for the Kumamoto native, but several sports books have them in fourth place at +650, tied with the Mariners and Yankees. This comes on the heels of the team picking up the $10M club option on 3rd baseman Max Muncy on Thursday.
Currently the Padres and Red Sox lead the pack at +550 odds, with the Mets sitting in 3rd at +600. A deal with San Diego would likely mean a shift to 1st base or DH for Murakami who currently have Manny Machado entrenched at 3rd. Depending what happens with Alex Bregman who recently opted out of his deal with Boston, the Red Sox may have a vacancy at the hot corner, while the Mets would love to add another impact bat to their infield.
Still, it’s hard to count the Dodgers out given their championship pedigree, deep pockets, and existing roster of Japanese stars who could ease the transition across the Pacific.
Photo: とらとうはんしん. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.