A player who has been in Yankees’ free agency rumors for years, Munetaka Murakami is a free agent at the conclusion of the 2025 season, and they could be smack-dab in the middle of these sweepstakes. The 1B/3B himself has stated interest in playing for the Yankees, and Doug McKain of Dodgers Nation reports while the slugger has a West Coast preference, the one team he would be willing to forgo that for is the New York Yankees.
“I was talking to some Japanese/NPB insiders, they told me he would definitely prefer on the West Coast…but it’s going to be West Coast teams versus one team on the East Coast; and it’s the Yankees…he would definitely be willing to sign with the Yankees.”
Doug McKain would go on to add that he believes the Yankees would be the favorites for Murakami, who is one of the most prominent home run threats in recent NPB history. His bat-to-ball skills have lagged behind the rest of his skillset, but the Yankees could be intrigued by the massive power potential that Munetaka Murakami possesses, especially as a left-handed hitter.
Why the Yankees Could Be In a Perfect Position to Land Munetaka Murakami
The Yankees may not have to worry about the Dodgers in a potential Munetaka Murakami sweepstakes, as their roster has Max Muncy at third base, Freddie Freeman at first base, and Shohei Ohtani at DH. While the Dodgers could decline the $10 million club option for Muncy at the end of the season, it would be stunning to see them do so for Murakami if their veteran slugger continues to produce.
Furthermore, while Murakami has continued to play some third base in the NPB, he doesn’t profile to stick at the position at the Major League level. He has stated a clear interest in coming over to the United States, and the Yankees will have a much clearer path to roster the star Japanese slugger with their lack of a long-term 1B. Paul Goldschmidt is only signed to a one-year deal and is in the final stages of his career, which makes a potential reunion after 2025 a bit tricky to imagine unless he’s utterly dominant.
What could present a fork in the road for the Yankees’ pursuit of Munetaka Murakami is his alarmingly high strikeout rates, as he’s gone from around a 30-40 grade hit tool to a 20-grade in the past two seasons.
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It’s easy to dream about the power that Murakami would provide in the middle of the Yankees’ offense and how it could play at Yankee Stadium, and it’s just as easy to dread what his contact rates could look like. He has led the NPB in strikeouts over the past two seasons, being punched out 180 times in 610 trips to the plate last season, and while it came with 33 home runs and 105 walks, MLB pitchers could eat him alive if he doesn’t reverse those trends.
During his historic 2022 season where he smashed 56 home runs with a 1.168 OPS, he struck out just 128 times in 612 trips to the plate, meaning his strikeout rate has climbed by nearly 9% in the last two seasons. Perhaps a big reason for this increase in strikeout rate is the NPB’s declining offense as a league, with pitchers having a clear advantage right now in terms of run environment and the baseballs themselves.
Unlike in MLB, the NPB has pre-tacked baseballs, and that could be giving Murakami some trouble at the moment. There’s still no precedent for a hitter with as many contact holes as Munetaka Murakami coming over to the U.S. and having tons of success, but you could also argue no hitter has come over from Japan with the power profile that he has, as even Shohei Ohtani took time to get things going in the HR department.