Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami posted by the Tokyo Yakult Swallows (NPB) | 村上宗隆最新ニュース
There’s going to be new talent in the big leagues in 2026. Of course, the international waters are open. And we learned this week of Munitaka Murakami being posted by his former employer, the Yakult Swallows. Japanese League star with massive pop Jesse. They call him the Japanese Babe Ruth. There’s also a lot of swing and miss there. What do we expect from him as a player? Who do we expect to be interested as far as big league teams? Well, look, I mean, you have both infield corner positions possible for this player plus the D8. So, there’ll be plenty of suitors. I mean, from the Giants to, uh, the Mariners to, uh, possibly both uh, New York teams. That’s just a small list. There’s going to be a good room. Look, you uh, there’s a lot of fascinating things about this. One of them, and I think this is why he was posted um when he was to open up the window for the GM and the winter meetings, is um peel back the onion on this, his agency is Casey Close and Excel. And now all great left-handed hitters this off season go through Casey Close and Excel. Excel. They have Tucker, they have Schwarber, and they have Morakami. So, it’s going to be very interesting. He’ll be Casey Close very popular at the GM meetings as well as the winner meetings for those three left-handers. And obviously there’s a deadline with with Morami. And I think he’s going to do very well. Yes. Um the swing and miss will be real, but also the home runs. Um triple A to the majors. You see swing and miss and home runs like you know we can we can portray what it’s going to be. We can foreshadow what it’s going to be. But those home runs from the left side are going to be very very popular among a lot of teams. I think the floor and the ceiling on this player is fascinating. Uh the ceiling might be one of the lefties that Jesse just mentioned and Kyle Schwabber. He might strike out a lot and have a low average, but the power is real. Uh he’s only 25. He’s going to get a large large long contract, which is both great and again dangerous. If this doesn’t fully translate, you might be married to this guy for six, seven, eight years on a contract here, which I think is fascinating. Uh there’s a lot of swing and miss even in Japan where the velocity is not the same. Uh nobody I’ve talked to thinks he stands at third base in the major leagues. He’s going to have to move across the dime at the first or be a a DH. There’s questions about left on left stuff. But in an age where people need power. We saw what power meant again in the postseason. I think teams went 30 and five if they out homerred their opponent in the postseason. He’s just 25. He’s going to get a lot of love in this marketplace. Yeah. with his age and and Japan’s hot. You know, it’s a it’s a hot marketplace for MLB right now. And so that might get teams who might, you know, in years past been a little more shy about a major contract with someone with a 36% whiff rate in a contact oriented NPB. You know, they might be more willing to take that risk uh you know, for that power angle like like Joel says. But um you know, Show Otani came to MLB with swing and miss concerns and he eliminated that leg kick after his first spring training and we saw what he became. So, you know, there I’m sure there’ll be an adjustment uh for this player, you know, coming to the States, but uh you know, I I look at the Mariners as a really interesting team here. That’s a team I’ve always kind of circled as maybe getting back to the forefront of the Japanese market, you know, going back to their Ichro Suzuki days and they have the needs on the corners. So, um, but yeah, it’s it’s kind of fun when when a player of this Hilk with this power profile is all of a sudden infiltrating MLB.
Munetaka Murakami has been posted by the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball. MLB clubs have 45 days to negotiate with the star Japanese corner infielder.
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