"The Village God" arrives in the Major Leagues! Munetaka Murakami officially submits his posting request, kicking off the battle for the "Village God".

On November 9th Beijing time, all 30 MLB teams were officially notified that the NPB Tokyo Yakult Swallows have posted their 25-year-old slugger Munetaka Murakami. The official negotiation window with MLB clubs opens at 9 PM Beijing time on November 9th and lasts until 6 AM on December 23rd. If no contract is reached by then, Murakami will return to the Swallows.

The plan for Munetaka Murakami to join MLB has been in the works for months. Reports as early as last December indicated that the 2025 season would be his final one in Japanese professional baseball, and in June, Yakult’s president and acting owner Tetsuya Hayashida told several Japanese media outlets the team is "willing" to post this two-time Central League MVP and four-time All-Star.

Murakami primarily plays third base in NPB, but some scouts believe he might be better suited to first base defensively in MLB. This 6-foot-2, 213-pound power hitter has smashed 246 home runs in 892 games, including 56 homers in the 2022 season, breaking Sadaharu Oh’s 58-year-old single-season home run record for a Japan-born player.

At just 22 years old that year, Murakami also won the batting Triple Crown, becoming the youngest player in league history to achieve this feat.

A scout who has evaluated Murakami multiple times said, "He possesses genuine power, which should translate well in the Major Leagues."

Teams like the Yankees, Mets, Mariners, Phillies, Giants, and Red Sox are all expected to show interest in Murakami. He is one of two prominent Japanese sluggers aiming to enter MLB this winter, the other being Yomiuri Giants’ Kazuma Okamoto, a six-time All-Star and three-time home run leader, who is also preparing to use the posting system.

In the 2025 season, injuries limited Murakami to just 56 games, but he still managed to hit 22 home runs, drive in 47 runs, and posted a slugging percentage of 1.043.

With Pete Alonso likely to opt out of his contract (which he did), Mets’ baseball operations president David Stearns traveled to Japan in August to scout Murakami, coinciding with a walk-off home run. The Mariners face free agency for first baseman Josh Naylor and third baseman Eugenio Suárez, making them a logical suitor for Murakami.

The Phillies have multiple plans for Murakami: if they lose Kyle Schwarber, who hit 56 homers in a season, Bryce Harper could move to the outfield to open first base, or they could trade third baseman Alec Bohm, who is entering a contract year. The Red Sox could slot Murakami at first base, and if Alex Bregman leaves, third base would also become available.

The Giants have third baseman Matt Chapman and designated hitter Rafael Devers but could still have Murakami play first base. However, top prospect Bryce Eldridge (ranked 12th among MLB’s top 100 prospects) may be ready to take over first base, making the Giants a less ideal fit compared to other teams.

A potential concern is Murakami’s rising strikeout rate over the past three seasons: it exceeded 30% in the two seasons before, dropped to 20.9%-22.3% from 2020 to 2022, but has climbed back to 28.1%-29.5% recently, including 180 strikeouts in 610 plate appearances in 2024.

His walk rate is also troubling: it declined from a peak of 19.3% in 2022 to 14.3% in 2025. Murakami’s career on-base percentage is .394, but it has fallen to around .370 in the last three seasons, whereas it stayed between .408 and .458 from 2020 to 2022.

An American League executive said last month, "The strikeout and walk numbers might scare off some teams. He has immense power but clear flaws in his swing mechanics."

Murakami turned 25 in February this year, so he is not subject to the international signing bonus pool restrictions that affected Rōki Sasaki last year. According to the rules, players aged 25 or older who have played at least six seasons in MLB-recognized foreign leagues are exempt. Since Japanese pro players must serve nine years to become full free agents, Murakami must go through the posting process with Yakult’s approval to join MLB.

Murakami’s contract size is noteworthy: historically, the largest contracts for Japanese players moving to MLB have been pitchers, including Yoshinobu Yamamoto (signed 12 years, $325 million before 2024), Masahiro Tanaka (7 years, $155 million in 2014), and Kodai Senga (5 years, $75 million before 2023).

The largest contracts for Japanese position players belong to Masataka Yoshida (5 years, $90 million before 2023) and Seiya Suzuki (5 years, $85 million signed in 2022). Meanwhile, Lee Jung-hoo, who played seven years in the KBO, signed a 6-year, $113 million deal with the Giants before 2024. None of these hitters match Murakami’s terrifying power, whose slugging potential is rare among Japanese hitters going to MLB since Hideki Matsui over twenty years ago.

This offseason, the corner infield/designated hitter market features many big names: Schwarber, Bregman, Alonso, Suárez, and Naylor are all free agents. Although Murakami remains somewhat of an unknown, for teams that believe current MLB players are overpriced, he could be an ideal alternative.