Munetaka Murakami’s rookie year had all the usual contradictions: loud power, ugly swing-and-miss, and enough production to make his new team believe it found something real.
That’s part of why he landed among the three finalists for the American League Outstanding Rookie Award in the MLBPA’s Players Choice Awards on Wednesday. He joins Detroit’s Kevin McGonigle and Cleveland’s Parker Messick in an all-AL Central group. The winners are scheduled to be announced the week of Oct. 26, and the awards, established in 1992, are voted on by the players themselves.
For Murakami, that matters. Getting recognized by the people who had to face him all season carries some weight, and at times it was not a pleasant assignment. The White Sox first baseman put together a season built around big damage when he made contact, even if the contact didn’t come nearly often enough.
He finished the regular season with a .207/.347/.478 slash line, an .825 OPS, 35 home runs, 77 RBIs and 92 walks in 127 games. A right hamstring strain knocked him out for roughly six weeks from late May into July, but the power still showed up.
So did the patience. The average, not so much.
Under the hood, though, there was plenty to like. Murakami posted a 130 OPS+ and 2.3 WAR, and the raw power numbers jumped off the page.
He finished in the 100th percentile in barrel rate, the 99th percentile in hard-hit rate and walk rate, and the 98th percentile in average exit velocity. When he squared one up, pitchers usually knew it immediately.
The other side of that coin was the contact profile. His whiff rate and strikeout rate both sat in the first percentile, and his expected batting average checked in at the second percentile.
Even so, his chase rate ranked in the 91st percentile, which at least separated his discipline from his bat-missing. He could resist pitches out of the zone and still have trouble putting the ball in play once he committed.
The season opened with the kind of stretch that makes a front office dream a little. Through his first 74 games, Murakami had already hit 24 of his eventual 35 homers and looked like someone the White Sox could build around right away. The back half of the year was a different story.
The slump carried into Soxtober, where he hit .185/.258/.296 with a .554 OPS, one homer, five RBIs, three walks and 15 strikeouts in 27 at-bats. It was a rough finish, but the season still gave Chicago a real foundation to work with.
Murakami’s path to the South Side had already made plenty of noise before he ever took a big-league at-bat. The White Sox signed him to a two-year, $34 million contract on Dec. 21, 2025, a move that drew attention well beyond Chicago. He arrived with a heavy résumé: back-to-back Central League MVP awards in 2021 and 2022, four NPB All-Star selections, the 2019 Central League Rookie of the Year award and a 2021 Japan Series championship with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.
He also came with one of the most eye-catching seasons in recent memory. In 2022, he won the Triple Crown by hitting .318 with 56 home runs and 134 RBIs. Those 56 homers set the single-season record for a Japanese-born player.
The transition wasn’t limited to the batter’s box, either. Murakami had primarily played third base in Japan, but the White Sox moved him to first, and he finished with -2 Fielding Run Value. The organization bought the bat first and foremost.
Now Chicago is figuring out how long it can keep that bat around. According to Bruce Levine, general manager Chris Getz said Tuesday that extension talks with Murakami’s representatives started in late summer and are still ongoing.
The rest of the Players Choice Awards field has some familiar faces, too. Dylan Cease and Chris Sale are finalists for their respective leagues’ Outstanding Pitcher awards, Chris Bassitt is up for Marvin Miller Man of the Year and Jake Burger is a Philanthropist of the Year finalist.
In Other News...
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Getz also touched on first baseman Munetaka Murakami and made clear the front office values what he brings to the picture beyond this season. For a team still trying to establish a real foundation, the tension is familiar: push harder for immediate help, or keep protecting the long view and trust the rebuild to hold together. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Still Have One Huge Murakami Question After Breakout Rookie Year
Munetaka Murakami gave the White Sox plenty to feel good about in his rookie season, powering 35 home runs and posting an .825 OPS while quickly becoming a major part of the club's offensive mix. Now the bigger question around the first baseman is not what he can do on the field, but how long he will be around to do it, with the team and Murakami locked in extension discussions.
The talks got underway in late summer and have remained quiet since then, with the White Sox offering no official update on where things stand. For a player who already looks like a foundational piece after one strong season, the uncertainty adds another layer to an offseason that could shape the team's core for years to come. [Read more 🡒]