Munetaka Murakami is just 74 games into his MLB career, but the accolades continue to pile up.
On Thursday, the White Sox slugger joined Andrew Benintendi, Colson Montgomery and Miguel Vargas as part of a four-home run barrage Thursday in Chicago’s 6-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
It marked the fifth time this season that Murakami, Montgomery and Vargas have homered in the same game, tying them for the most by any trio of teammates since 1900.
Murakami’s two-run opposite-field blast off Nick Martinez marked his 24th home run of the season and his first of two hits on the day, raising his on-base percentage to .381.
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Through his first 74 career games, Murakami is now just the second player in MLB history to record at least 24 home runs while maintaining an OBP of .381 or higher. The only player to previously reach that mark was Yordan Alvarez, who posted a .409 OBP with 24 homers through his first 74 games.
Everyone knew that Murakami had elite power. All you had to do was look at his resume in Nippon Professional Baseball, where he amassed 246 homers over eight seasons in Japan. The bigger question was how quickly he could adjust to major league pitching, particularly the jump in velocity.
Not only has Murakami been able to handle high velocity, he is one of the best in baseball against power arms. Among the 144 hitters with at least 30 plate appearances against pitches of 97 mph or faster this season, the Japanese slugger owns the highest OPS and slugging percentage in baseball.
Part of that success is due to his bat speed. The other key has been his patience at the plate. Pitchers have struggled to adjust to the 26-year-old because he refuses to chase pitches out of the zone. His 22% chase rate is one of the lowest in baseball, while his 18.2% walk rate is amongst the highest in the league.
Murakami’s willingness to take a free base has forced opposing pitchers to challange them, and when they make a mistake over the heart of the plate, he makes them pay. But his homers this season haven’t just come against mistakes. In fact, it’s been quite the opposite.
Murakami has just one home run this season on a fastball over the heart of the strike zone, largely because opposing pitchers have been reluctant to challenge him there.
Nearly everything Murakami has done at the plate this season has been elite. In expected slugging percentage, hard-hit rate, barrel percentage and average exit velocity, the Kumamoto native ranks in the MLB’s top 5% or better.
What started as a question mark has quickly become one of the biggest storylines in baseball. Murakami wasn’t just able to adjust to MLB pitching; he has dominated it. And if the first 74 games are any indication, the White Sox need to extend him sooner rather than later, because they may have stumbled upon a superstar to anchor their lineup for years to come.
