The Chicago White Sox shocked the MLB world when they signed Munetaka Murakami to a $34 million contract. Now, the Japanese slugger has shown why Chicago made the correct decision.
In the White Sox's Sunday matchup against the Milwaukee Brewers, Murakami hit his third home run of the season already. Fans were out of their seat watching their new addition's power surge continue.
White Sox’s Munetaka Murakami now has THREE home runs in THREE career games 🤯
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) March 29, 2026
“HOW BLESSED ARE WE TO HAVE MUNETAKA MURAKAMI ON OUR BASEBALL TEAM,” Brett of 35th wrote.
“MUNETAKA MURAKAMI I WILL be buying a jersey,” YourUncleShan added.
“Omigosh, I LOVE Munetaka Murakami!!! And his teammates clearly do too,” Julie Swieca Gannon posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Alongside his two home runs, Murakami entered Sunday's matchup hitting .400 with 3/1 walk ratio. His third home run followed suit in that all of them have been of the solo variety. Still, the first baseman has left no doubts about his legit over the fence power.
Over his eight years playing in Japan, Murakami hit plenty of home runs. To be exact, 265. He added a .273 batting average and 722 RBIs. Furthermore, Murakami was named Central League MVP twice and won the Triple Crown in 2022.
However, when he came to MLB, interest surrounding the slugger wasn't as grand as expected. That's part of the reason the White Sox managed to sign him. So far, Chicago can't complain about the results.
Murakami will need to prove he can be a power bat over the course of an entire 162-game MLB season. But if he can, the White Sox may have signed the American League Rookie of the Year in free agency.




















