One of the top Japanese players available on the free agent market this offseason is Munetaka Murakami. Along with Tatsuya Imai and Kazuma Okamoto, he has become the object of desire for several MLB teams.
Curiously, there is nothing concrete for him to make the move to Major League Baseball. Why? Because those interested have their doubts about him.
it looks as if his career will continue in Japan.
interested teams are concerned about his strikeout rate and his performance against high-velocity pitching.
He’s mainly a DH-type player. He plays first; he plays third. But from what I understand and from what everyone says, he’s not a great defender. He has a lot of swings and misses in his game. That’s the concern teams have. The other concern is whether he’ll be able to hit well against high-speed pitching. He has incredible power, a power that teams crave
He has hit 246 home runs in 892 games since making his debut with the Swallows in 2018.
Short-term contract, a problem with Munetaka Murakami
Ken Rosenthal noted that one of the main obstacles to signing him is the short-term contract.
If you sign him to a short-term deal, I don’t know, let’s put a random figure on it: two years and $40 million with an opt-out clause. Well, you still have to pay a posting fee. That increases the cost of the short-term contract, when you could lose the player in two or three years. That makes things a little bit more complicated
Read the full article here
