International Scouting Improvements Helped White Sox Land Munetaka Murakami
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The simplest way to view the Munetaka Murakami signing is that he improves the White Sox going into 2026. But the big-picture perspective may be even more meaningful.
Since taking over as White Sox general manager in August of 2023, Chris Getz has worked to develop various aspects of the organization. From its hitting and pitching infrastructure to international scouting and drafting, there has been increased focused on the foundational building blocks.
So while a two year, $34 million contract may jump out because of Murakami's ability and second-highest 2026 salary, it also speaks to how the White Sox have made strides from a scouting and acquisition standpoint.
During Murakami's introductory press conference, Getz credited David Keller, the team's special assistant to the executive vice president and general manager of international scouting, as well as the team's scouts in Japan, such as Satoshi Takahashi.
“It certainly takes a lot of time and effort to learn about players that are not in the States, and the chance to bring in Mune is something that, it’s beyond the baseball player, it’s the person," Getz said. "We’re talking about someone that’s a superstar in Japan, and to be able to have him now wearing a White Sox uniform, it cannot be understated how significant that is. From the beginning, we’ve been committed to improving the foundation of this organization and making every process as comprehensive as possible. This speaks to that process."
"When free agency hit, every negotiation is a unique one. We’ve got strong relationships with Excel [Sports Management], with Casey [Close] and with Bobby [Barad], and we stayed in touch. I’m certainly always very attracted to left-handed bats, and certainly if there’s power in there as well. ... But yeah, it really starts years ago when we began scouting him, learning more about the player, obviously there’s more information than ever. And we believe that Mune’s gonna be a star in this game."
Keller spoke in September at Rate Field about the changes to the White Sox international scouting department.
"We're just a little over a year from the date of my hiring. In that time, we've turned over our entire international staff," Keller said. "We've implemented a brand-new system and process that we believe, over time, if repeated consistently and well, is going to yield positive results for the White Sox."
"We recently hired a scout in Japan to scout the NPB for us," Keller continued. "I was recently in Japan for 10 days and watching those players, we do know or feel like there will be players that come over from Japan. Part of what I talked about initially was process. We’re still in the beginning stages of setting up an infrastructure that allows us to feel good about a process in acquiring those players. I don’t believe that stops us from pursuing them.
(To read the full story from September on a "dramatically different" White Sox international scouting department under Keller's leadership, CLICK HERE.)
Murakami adds much-needed power to a White Sox lineup that returns 2025 home runs leaders Lenyn Sosa (22), Colson Montgomery (21) and Andrew Benintendi (20) and ranked 28th in slugging percentage. The Japanese corner infielder hit 24 home runs in just 69 NPB games last season, part of an eight-year stretch with 265 home runs that was highlighted by a record-setting 56 in 2022.
Getz believes director of hitting Ryan Fuller, in his second season with the White Sox, and new hitting coach Derek Shomon can help get the most out of Murakami.
"Our infrastructure is strong. It’s getting better. It’s getting more aligned," Getz said. "We feel like this is the best place for [Murakami], we really do. This is a chance for him to really take off, and we know that we’re gonna feel the benefits here in Chicago and for the White Sox. So yeah, this is a big move for us."
Perhaps the biggest question around Murakami is how he'll adjust to better pitching in MLB. There are some concerns around his strikeout rate, which neared 30% each of the last two seasons. Among qualified MLB hitters in 2025, only seven had higher strikeout rates than Murakami, including Ryan McMahon, James Wood, Mike Trout, Oneil Cruz, Riley Greene, Eugenio Suarez and Jordan Beck.
Several of those players have proven to be very valuable despite their swing-and-miss tendencies, which shows there's some trade-off between elite power and strikeouts. The White Sox will try to help Murakami cut down on strikeouts, but they don't want to take away his strengths as byproduct of that work.
"It starts with, what makes Mune so attractive? And it’s the bat speed," Getz said. "You look at the engine, you look at the swing decisions, you look at the power output. It’s significant. And yeah, there’s been some conversations about some contact and some swing and miss. Oftentimes swing and miss comes with a lot of the power. There’s training techniques, just exposure to this level of competition. You’re talking about someone where the work ethic is strong."
"There’s willingness and determination to be successful over here at the Major League level, on top of the infrastructure that we have here. We’re gonna be able to guide him to improve the areas that need to be improved. And that might be the contact ability, it might be on the defensive side, but what makes Mune so attractive to us is this power output and he’s already got the swing decisions. And we’re talking about a guy that’s got some real, real firepower in the engine that makes Mune so special. So we look forward to getting to work.”
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Jack Ankony is the beat writer for “Chicago White Sox on SI.” He has been with the Sports Illustrated network since 2022. He graduated from Indiana University's Media School with a degree in journalism in 2022. Follow Jack on Twitter @ankony_jack
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