The Sox will not sign Murakami but i imagine his situation is holding up some of the 1B market. Maybe O'Hearn signs with whoever is 2nd place on Murakami. Or is waiting to hear that a suitor is going with Murakami before pivoting to us or Pittsburgh.

Depends maybe if you believe Mets really are done addressing 1B or not. Maybe Mets are saying Polanco will play 1B just as a way of making the agents of the 1B targets nervous.

 

Edited December 17, 2025Dec 17 by Fielder Jones

2 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Why trade Marte to add Bergman?

Maybe they want to get a worse player for a higher price tag for fun.

2 hours ago, fathom said:

I will take 450 strikeouts and 70 homers from him and Colson

There may be one, but i cant remember any Japanese player coming over with a k-rate that high in Japan and doing anything.

11 minutes ago, Fielder Jones said:

The Sox will not sign Murakami but i imagine his situation is holding up some of the 1B market. Maybe O'Hearn signs with whoever is 2nd place on Murakami. Or is waiting to hear that a suitor is going with Murakami before pivoting to us or Pittsburgh.

Depends maybe if you believe Mets really are done addressing 1B or not. Maybe Mets are saying Polanco will play 1B just as a way of making the agents of the 1B targets nervous.

 

I unno man. I'm not saying Murakami is a sure bet, but if there is one signing that wouldn't surprise me it would be going after a high profile first baseman from abroad.

9 minutes ago, bmags said:

I unno man. I'm not saying Murakami is a sure bet, but if there is one signing that wouldn't surprise me it would be going after a high profile first baseman from abroad.

I believe the Sox do truly believe in the culture BS highly. when they sign free agents they want them to come in and lead & inspire. i dont know Murakami's communication ability specifically but I think you couple that with the fact JR doesnt want to pay a posting fee to an outside party.. then that is probably gonna be that.

Jerry doesnt like agents or finder fees of any sort

27 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

There may be one, but i cant remember any Japanese player coming over with a k-rate that high in Japan and doing anything.

I mean, that Ohtani guy has been pretty good

6 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

I mean, that Ohtani guy has been pretty good

Was his K-rate that high in Japan? The keyword. He didn’t say hitter in general.

Edited December 17, 2025Dec 17 by Bob Sacamano

25 minutes ago, Fielder Jones said:

I believe the Sox do truly believe in the culture BS highly. when they sign free agents they want them to come in and lead & inspire. i dont know Murakami's communication ability specifically but I think you couple that with the fact JR doesnt want to pay a posting fee to an outside party.. then that is probably gonna be that.

Jerry doesnt like agents or finder fees of any sort

You sound like you know more, I'm more commenting in that I don't believe the sox will sign helpful free agents, but I leave an open area for DHs, 1b, and Relief (also known as the positions you can get under 80 million)

"MLB Trade Rumors says Murakami might get an eight-year, $180 million deal. That's an AAV of $22.5 million, which the Cubs could easily afford and still stay under the first luxury tax level. Also, since Murakami was posted Nov. 7, his posting window ends at 4 p.m. Dec. 22, next Monday."

Crazy amount of variance here...anywhere from $80-180 million is quite unusual, but the floor/ceiling arguments are similar.

Classic boom/bust power hitter.

Japanese Babe Ruth or the hitting equivalent of Hideki Irabu.

5 hours ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

I think I picked him in whatever that thread was about off season signings dreams over a month ago. Okamoto likely to go for more. Don't they all have the same deadline ? 

Okamotos deadline is January 5th. There was at least some genuine interest from the Sox there. 

Edited December 17, 2025Dec 17 by Buehrle>Wood

3 minutes ago, Buehrle>Wood said:

Okamotos deadline is January 5th. There was at least some genuine interest from the Sox there. 

And he's anywhere from $40-80 million depending on years/including posting fees.

The biggest problem there is age...you're looking at a 31 year old 1B in 2028, with significant concerns about bat speed drop offs.

Ichiro and Ohtani are unicorns.

There are very few examples of DH types from Japan turning out well in their 30s...Hideki Matsui I guess.  Seiya Suzuki has held up pretty well so far.

Yoshida with Boston is the expensive counter point.

 

 

 

Just now, Sleepy Harold said:

 

 

Just an extremely los angeles angels signing.

8 minutes ago, bmags said:

 

Just an extremely los angeles angels signing.

Which one?

58 minutes ago, Bob Sacamano said:

Was his K-rate that high in Japan? The keyword. He didn’t say hitter in general.

Yes it was

6 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Yes it was

Murakami looks like it is quite a bit higher at glance.

 

One social media post that went viral suggested he batted just .095 last year in NPB action against pitches of 93 MPH or higher. For context, the average fastball velocity in Major League Baseball sits around 94 MPH.

https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/1ougnu9/has_anyone_else_seen_the_data_on_munetaka/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjOwtWzzMORAxV2FjQIHYDdBE8QFnoECAkQAg&usg=AOvVaw0lTCrur9CejA8TYPwGUkhq

10 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

One social media post that went viral suggested he batted just .095 last year in NPB action against pitches of 93 MPH or higher. For context, the average fastball velocity in Major League Baseball sits around 94 MPH.

https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/1ougnu9/has_anyone_else_seen_the_data_on_munetaka/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjOwtWzzMORAxV2FjQIHYDdBE8QFnoECAkQAg&usg=AOvVaw0lTCrur9CejA8TYPwGUkhq

That’s supposedly based on a 24 pitch sample this year and he was at .324 in the year before when he played a full season

4 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

That’s supposedly based on a 24 pitch sample this year and he was at .324 in the year before when he played a full season

Is that really possible in roughly 2 months of NPB at bats this year?

That's the equivalent of let's say just 1.5 games head to head against Matsumoto.

Look’s like Ohtani’s was slightly higher. However, he also only played there through his age 22 season. Murakami has played there through his age 25.

Edited December 17, 2025Dec 17 by Bob Sacamano

25 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

Is that really possible in roughly 2 months of NPB at bats this year?

That's the equivalent of let's say just 1.5 games head to head against Matsumoto.

I’m just repeating what your link says…did you read your links?

32 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

I’m just repeating what your link says…did you read your links?

Not all of them, because parts of reddit are getting blocked by the Chinese firewall AND even my VPN, so I can only see the headline was a discussion of his hitting against velocity.  Which I assumed would provide useful information germane to the topic.

That said...there's already a huge discrepancy between his age 20-23 numbers and his productivity over the last what is essentially 1.25 seasons.

A lot of posts in general are therefore instead focusing on his WBC numbers.  But that's also out of date and limited.

Which finally doubles back to the one Sox scout in country making a determination.

That and the fact he's still going to end up with a deal bigger than Benintendi or Grandal.

Edited December 17, 2025Dec 17 by caulfield12

From Rosenthal

Execs saying “no team wants prospects” if that’s the case Getz needs to get Jerry to pay whatever he needs to, to try and get themselves two top 100 prospects back for Robert 

18 minutes ago, Reyno45 said:

From Rosenthal

Execs saying “no team wants prospects” if that’s the case Getz needs to get Jerry to pay whatever he needs to, to try and get themselves two top 100 prospects back for Robert 

i feel like Rosenthal is putting this out there because buyers want it out there. But really i dont see any evidence of what Ken is saying.. for a few years now teams have been really reticent to trade top prospects. Even for Crochet, we had to take a catcher and an injured guy to get Top 100 guys. Teams now believe other teams are too good at evaluating their guys. Maybe we taught them that in the Semien and Tatis debacles

4 hours ago, CWSpalehoseCWS said:

Yep, could also hit 40+ bombs. He's got a lot of risk, but also a lot of potential.

So its a more expensive, proven in Japan version of Tim Elko. Except he's LH and Elko is RH . Elko should go to Japan. He might be a star there. 

I know I'm cheapening his value considering he was a superstar in Japan while still very young. Ill be interested in following him since we are hearing scouts call him a boom or bust kind of guy. I think its more likely he'll hit a lot of bombs and K a lot and be neither a bust nor a boom. He'll be worth his contract. 

Im highly skeptical the Sox get him because money as usual even if he signs a fairly reasonable contract. Sox arent doing reasonable if it involves 3+ years over $50M. There's no way JR wants to pay anyone during the strike season. 

Edited December 17, 2025Dec 17 by CaliSoxFanViaSWside