Yakult Swallows slugger Munetaka Murakami announced on Monday the 2025 season will be his last as part of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league, according to Yahoo! Sports Japan. Murakami signaled his intention to transfer to Major League Baseball, thereby becoming the latest in a long line of Japanese stars to make the leap.
Murakami, 24, made global headlines in 2022, when he shattered Sadaharu Oh’s single-season home-run record for a Japanese-born player, launching 56 home runs in 141 games. He hasn’t enjoyed that same degree of success since, posting OPS of .875 and .851 in the subsequent two seasons.
Unlike current sensation Roki Sasaki, Murakami will not be classified as an international amateur free agent. That’s because he’ll celebrate his 25th birthday come February and will have amassed more than six seasons in a recognized foreign professional league. Murakami will, nevertheless, be subjected to the posting system — MLB’s transfer portal — meaning that the Swallows will receive a fee in accordance to whatever contract he eventually signs with an MLB team. Here’s the pertinent breakdown:
- Contract worth less than $25 million: 20% of contract value
- Contract worth $25 million to $50 million: $5 million plus 17.5% of amount over $25 million
- Contract worth more than $50 million: $9.275 million plus 15% of amount over $50 million
Predictably, Murakami offers massive power from the left side. He’s averaged 38 home runs over the last five seasons, and has finished with fewer than 30 just once. (He hit 28 during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign.) Murakami has also showcased strong on-base skills, walking more than 15% of the time last season alone. There are some drawbacks to his game. He’s consistently posted alarmingly high strikeout rates (over 28% in 2023, when the league-average mark was 19.6%), and he’s not a skilled defender at the hot corner, suggesting he’ll end up sliding down the defensive spectrum.
It’s worth noting that Murakami’s strikeout rate ticked up once again in 2024, with him punching out in 29.5% of his trips to the plate. He’s likely to be viewed as a first baseman by MLB teams, meaning that they’ll place even more emphasis on his bat-to-ball skills and how his game will port to facing MLB-caliber arms.
