Less than 30 games into his MLB career, Munetaka Murakami is already in rare company, homering in three straight games twice this season, a feat matched by Rhys Hoskins since 1900 within his first 22 career games.
Murakami’s power surge helped fuel a road series win over the Athletics, highlighted by a towering 431-foot grand slam Friday in Sacramento that cleared the batter’s eye and jump-started a struggling Chicago White Sox offense in a 9-2 breakout. On Sunday, the White Sox prized offseason addition did it again, launching a Jeffrey Springs slider 425 feet for his eighth home run of the season, and his third in as many games.
He already leads the White Sox in home runs (8), RBIs (16), runs scored (16), on-base percentage(.376) and OPS (.918).
Even in a tough-luck loss Saturday, when his seventh-inning homer briefly gave Chicago a 6-4 lead before a 7-6 defeat in 11 innings, Murakami continued to make a little history. He became the first Japanese-born player to hit seven home runs in his first 21 MLB games, surpassing Shohei Ohtani’s previous mark of five.
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Murakami presents a unique offensive profile. He owns one of the worst whiff rates in the MLB, is striking out at a 33% clip, and only has 15 hits in his first 72 at-bats. But despite his high strikeout rate and low batting average, he has shown tremendous plate discipline.
Murakami doesn’t chase pitches outside the strike zone, owning a 19% chase rate, which is among the lowest in the majors. This has helped him post a staggering 21.5% walk rate, placing him in the top 2% of MLB hitters.
He is quickly turning into a three-outcome player, with 63 percent of his 93 plate appearances consisting of either a walk, a strikeout, or a home run. That was on full display on Saturday when his five plate appearances consisted of three walks, a home run, and a strikeout.
Entering the road trip, Murakami was batting just .167, and while he has since raised his average to .208, eight of his 15 hits this season have been homers. Part of this has been a result of pictures being forced to throw Murakami strikes, as he has proven that he will not expand his strike zone. If you give a slugger like him enough mistakes in the zone, he will eventually capitalize.
However, the high-strikeout rate is also driven by a low in-zone contact rate, an issue that dates back to his time overseas. Over the last three seasons, Murakami’s 72.6% in-zone contact rate would have ranked among the lowest in the majors.
Despite becoming just the second Japanese-born player to suit up for the White Sox since Kosuke Fukudome in 2012, his profile feels familiar to longtime fans, and, fittingly, that comparison traces back to a former teammate of Fukudome’s.
Adam Dunn spent four seasons on the South Side from 2011 to 2014, with an eerily similar profile. In 2187 plate appearances with the White Sox, 52% of them ended in either a walk, strikeout, or home run. Like Murakamki, Dunn had plenty of power, connecting on 106 homers during that stretch, but racked up 720 strikeouts in the process while batting just .201.
While Dunn’s tenure with the White Sox was widely viewed as a disappointment, Murakami brings traits that could help lift his overall production and develop him into an even more well-rounded hitter.
He has elite bat speed and is consistently squaring up pitches with authority. Murakami’s 26% barrel rate and 62% hard-hit percentage both rank among the highest in baseball, while his .602 expected slugging percentage and 95 mph average exit velocity place him firmly in elite company.
While Murakami may never be one to hit for average, those numbers indicate he has been hitting the ball better than his .201 batting average suggests.
It’s still early in the season, and pitchers will continue to adjust their approach to Murakami as the year progresses. But the early returns have been encouraging for the White Sox, who now not only appear to have a solution at first base, but also a legitimate All-Star caliber bat in the middle of their lineup.
