{"id":5142,"date":"2025-12-21T23:01:56","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T18:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/white-sox-make-unexpected-move-sign-japanese-star-munetaka-murakami\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T23:01:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T18:01:56","slug":"white-sox-make-unexpected-move-sign-japanese-star-munetaka-murakami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/white-sox-make-unexpected-move-sign-japanese-star-munetaka-murakami\/","title":{"rendered":"White Sox make unexpected move, sign Japanese star Munetaka Murakami"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"TrackSep 15, 2025; Tokyo, Japan; A Japanese fan waves a flag during World Athletics Championships at National Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images <\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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The Chicago White Sox, not expected to be key players in offseason free agency, are signing Japanese star Munetaka Murakami to a two-year, $34 million contract, ESPN reported Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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The deadline for Murakami to sign after being posted by the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball is 5 p.m. ET on Monday.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Murakami, 25, is an infielder and expected to play first base for Chicago. In the 2025 season, the left-handed power hitter blasted 22 homers in an injury-shortened (oblique) season.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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In his career, Murakami has 265 home runs, 722 RBIs and an average of .273 in 1,003 career games, He hit a career-high 56 home runs in 2022, the most for a season in Japanese baseball history by a player born in Japan. The previous record was Japanese record holder Sadaharu Oh, who played 22 seasons with the Yomiuri Giants (1959-1980).<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Oh hit 55 in 1964, his highest total ever.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Murakami’s free agency didn’t develop quite as expected, per ESPN. Worries about defense and his tendencies to strike out seemingly kept teams from entering a bidding war.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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By signing a two-year deal, he can be a free agent again after the 2027 season, using his time with the White Sox as a chance to show his skills to the rest of MLB.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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What he most will be looking to show is improved composure at the plate. His career strikeout percentage is 25.2% after 446 strikeouts in 1,068 innings pitched.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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The White Sox lost 100 games in each of the past three seasons but are a team on the rise. They have the No. 1 pick in the draft in July and are expected to select UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Trades of pitchers Garrett Crochet and Lucas Giolito yielded a crop of top prospects such as infielders Colson Montgomery and Chase Meidroth, and catchers Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero. <\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Perhaps Chicago could make an unexpected run in the AL Central and interest Murakami enough to sign a longer-term contract after the 2027 season.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Chicago’s total outlay to sign Murakami will be $40.575 million, with the Swallows receiving a $6.575 million posting fee from the White Sox.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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–Field Level Media<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n


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Sep 15, 2025; Tokyo, Japan; A Japanese fan waves a flag during World Athletics Championships at National Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images The Chicago White Sox, not expected to be key players in offseason free agency, are signing Japanese star Munetaka Murakami to a two-year, $34 million contract, ESPN reported Sunday. The deadline for […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}