Another international sweepstakes awaits this winter, as Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami will be posted by his NPB team, the Yakult Swallows. He’ll be available for all 30 MLB teams to bid on, but the New York Mets have already emerged as an early favorite.
President of baseball operations David Stearns traveled to Japan earlier this year to watch the power-hitting infielder play. He did not disappoint, hitting a walk-off two-run home run against the Yokohama DeNa Baystars.
Murakami, 25, was limited by injuries in 2025, but still showed elite power. He hit 24 home runs with 52 RBI in 69 games, a 162-game pace of 56 home runs and 122 RBI.
He had hit 30 or more home runs in five of his previous six seasons, including a monstrous 56-homer, 134-RBI campaign in 2022.
The wrinkle in his game is shaky defense. He’s a third baseman with a below-average glove, but he has played first base, which is a significantly easier position to handle.
It provides a fallback option for the Mets, depending on how another Pete Alonso saga plays out.
The franchise home run king wasted no time announcing he would opt out of the final year of his two-year contract following the last game of the regular season, adding further insult to the injury of another collapse that resulted in a disastrous playoff miss.
Alonso followed up a career-worst season, which sapped his market and forced him to rejoin the Mets on that stopgap of a deal, with an impressive 2025, smashing 38 home runs and 126 RBI. While it remains to be seen just how expansive his market will be this winter, a player that will be 31 by Opening Day 2026 is reportedly looking for a seven-year deal (h/t Mike Puma, New York Post).
A contract of that length will provide pause for any interested party, and Stearns would likely balk at such an ask just as he did last winter. If negotiations with Scott Boras and Co. reach the same sort of impasse as they did last winter, Murakami’s availability provides another avenue, if not added leverage.
