Pitcher Roki Sasaki isn’t the only Nippon Professional Baseball star planning to hit MLB free agency soon. To that core of weight we must add Munetaka Murakami.
Indeed, Yahoo Sports revealed that the young infielder will play for his eighth season in his country’s baseball, before trying to sign with a squad in the elite American competition for the 2026 season.
Munetaka Murakami announced that 2025 will be his last season playing in Japan, per @Yahoo_JAPAN_PR
He will look to sign with an MLB team in 2026 pic.twitter.com/xFJoLKmpUi
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) December 2, 2024
Although a native NPB player needs to accumulate nine seasons to declare himself an unrestricted international free agent, Murakami will request to be placed in the post system by his team, the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. This is a kind of list where Japanese people who do not reach the minimum number of harvests in the aforementioned circuit can reach an agreement with their club (both must agree) to be eligible to obtain MLB contracts.
In fact, unlike Sasaki, 23 years old and who must wait until after next January 15 to test the market as part of the international signings, the powerful left-handed hitter would test the major league market without restrictions in 2026, since in At that time he will have turned 25 years old (today he is 24) and Major League Baseball removes the limitations for the signing of foreigners who are at least 25 years old and have six seasons in a circuit affiliated with it, as in the case of the Japanese
On the other hand, Murakami has made a tremendous impact in his country, given that he has 241 home runs in his short career, including 56 in 2022 when he broke the record of the legendary Sadaharu Oh, which dated from 1964.
Likewise, the first and third base defender was part of the Japanese team that won the 2023 World Classic.
