Why yes and why not Munetaka Murakami can join the Dodgers?
Dodgers are looking for a three-time championship and will spare no effort. What are your arguments for signing or not signing Munetaka Murakami?
The world of baseball is always a box of surprises and, when apparently everything is budgeted, a plot goes off script. It is just what the Los Angeles Dodgers could confirm if they acquire the services of Munetaka Murakamithe most coveted Japanese free agent on the market, which would reaffirm that they maintain their philosophy of paying for the best international talent if they achieve the goal of rising as a vintage team, which, although it is already a two-time champion, wants to emulate the New York Yankees from 1998 to 2000, who won the three-time championship.
The question is, are the Los Angeles Dodgers willing to close another million-dollar contract and move their starting third baseman, a franchise player, such as Max Muncy?
Who is Munetaka Murakami?
Let’s go in parts. Today, the player that all MLB franchises have on their radar and that everyone wants to obtain. He is a powerful 25-year-old third baseman, with the ability to also cover first base. He boasts eight seasons in the Nippon Professional Baseball League in which he has hit 246 home runs and produced 722 runs. His best season was 2022, in which he hit 56 home runs, a single-season record, leaving behind Sadaharu Oh and he also won the Batting Triple Crown.
Although injuries did not spare him in 2025, particularly one to the oblique that limited him to 56 games, he hit 22 homers and hit .273 with the bat. Perhaps the only genuine concern scouts have is his high strikeout rate (2.6 times per 10 at-bats).
Murakami also represented Japan during the 2023 World Classic and is very present in the memory of the Mexican fans, not with very pleasant memories after in the ninth inning, bottom half, of the semifinal game, he hit a double that did not reach air Alex Thomasso that Shohei Ohtani and Ukyo Shuto They will ring the tie and victory races, respectively, to leave the team led by Benjamin Gil and get their ticket to the Final of the competition that, in the end, they won against the United States.
The arrival of Murakami to the Dodgers would imply that Max Muncy would be benched, after the Californian team exercised its option on the third baseman for 2026 last Thursday. Nobody would want to have Murakami in the dugout, not even to give a privileged place to Muncy, since the Japanese surpasses the franchise player in power and age and, it is a fact, he would surpass him in salary, since it is estimated that whoever seeks his services will have to invest at least 100 million dollars for five years, in fact, there are those who project that a fair salary would be 180 million dollars for eight seasons.
Why would the Dodgers want him and sign him?
Because the Californians want the three-time championship, they have the money, they would obtain a bat of great power that is always better to have at home and not as a rival; Furthermore, they would now have the perfect replacement for Muncy.
What else? Well, we know that the two-time Major League champions have an affinity with the Japanese market (Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki) and the definitive role that the Japanese legion played in the last World Series is another argument that enriches the script of the Californian franchise.
Why wouldn’t we see Murakami in the Dodgers jersey?
Perhaps the first reason is that they have a highly competitive lineup and, as we already mentioned, they have given Muncy a boost by exercising his option for one more year. He is a franchise player who, at 35 years old, still offers guarantees in the hot corner, and, although they have the money, they cannot take away from the table that they have, along with the New York Mets, the highest payroll in the MLB and a large debt payable in the future after the signing of Ohtani to whom they will give 2 million of dollars annually for the next nine years and 680 million dollars to be paid between 2034 and 2043.
In addition, the Dodgers will have to overcome the process established by the publication system to acquire players from the Nippon League and in which many other MLB clubs will surely compete with the aim of obtaining the services of the Japanese.
Based on this system, the Japanese team, in this case the Tokyo Yakult Swallows They must publish that they give Murakami the right to negotiate with MLB clubs, once this is done, there is a 45-day window for negotiations to take place. The announcement by the club was made last Friday and the deadline for approaches and proposals is currently running.
In the event that the player reaches an agreement, the winning club will have to pay the buyout, which is calculated in accordance with the total guaranteed value of the MLB contract: 20 percent of the first 25 million dollars; 17.5 percent of the next $25 million; and 15 percent of any amount over $50 million.
If Murakami does not reach an agreement with an MLB team by the end of the 45-day window, he must return to the Swallows for the next season and cannot be released again until the following offseason. Something that surely won’t happen, so the question is, will the Los Angeles Dodgers do it again and rock the free agent market?
Let’s see.
