This winter, one of the top roster players available via the international free agent market is Japanese product Munetaka Murakami.

As per the posting guidelines between both the NPB and MLB, Murakami has been posted by the Swallows as of this morning and will have over 45 days to agree to a deal with a Major League team.

At 25 years old and with over six years of experience in a foreign league, Murakami is not restricted to international bonus pool restrictions, the same that Roki Sasaki fell into last winter. He can sign for whatever he can guarantee from a big league team (example: Yoshinobu Yamamoto signed for 12 years, $325 million with the Dodgers), and whoever signs the Japanese product will owe a certain percentage back to the Swallows for signing the slugger away from his original team.

Murakami is a corner infielder who is known for his power bat, with the left-handed hitting slugger smashing over 246 home runs for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in the NPB, Japan’s top level of baseball. Across 892 games, he has authored a .270/.394/.557 slash line with 146 doubles, 647 RBIs, and a .951 OPS. His power at the plate is his calling card, having hit over 30 home runs in five of his eight seasons with the Swallows, the highest being a 56 home run campaign back in 2022. On the field, Murakami has spent most of his time at third base, where he owns a .945 fielding percentage, but has also split time at first base, which is where many think the slugger will end up once he comes over stateside. Murakami missed a good portion of the 2025 season due to an oblique injury.

Through eight seasons in NPB, Murakami has earned four All-Star nominations, two Central League MVP Awards, the 2019 Central League Rookie of the Year Award, and won the Japan Series Championship with the Swallows in 2021. Baseball fans may also remember Murakami from the 2023 World Baseball Classic, where he collected six hits through 26 at-bats and belted a two-run home run against the United States in the final, sending a first pitch off Merrill Kelly over the right field wall to give Japan an early lead.

The left-handed bat does come with some risk. Like any power bat, he does come with some elevated strikeout numbers, striking out 29.5 percent of the time last season (64) and posting a 28.1 percent rate in 2024, which was 180 strikeouts.

The rumour continues to churn early this winter, as the Toronto Blue Jays are tied to the Japanese slugger out of the gate, per Ben Nicholson-Smith. Considering Nicholson-Smith is a beat journalist covering the Jays means this claim does have some merit compared to a national media pundit tying Toronto to another free agent based on a whim, so there is some potential there between the two sides. The Jays have dipped their toes into the international market in recent years, dating back to 2023/2024 with Yariel Rodriguez (who last pitched in the NPB) and with Shun Yamaguchi, who signed a two-year deal during the 2019/2020 campaign.

Looking at the lineup, Toronto could use some power to bring some balance to the overall order. They finished 11th in the league last season with their 191 home runs, and the Jays focused more on doing damage with what they had, which was contact bats that passed the baton to the next in the lineup, versus bludgeoning opponents to death with home run after home run. The Blue Jays had four players collect over 20+ home runs, led by George Springer (32) and his resurgence, and one could argue that Daulton Varsho could have improved upon his 20 had he been healthy for a full season, as well as Anthony Santander, who spent most of the year on the IL as well (and hitting just six homers). The need for power will always be present for all 30 teams, and the Blue Jays could always use another bat to complement Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at the top of the lineup, especially if Bo Bichette doesn’t return.

There is some potential that bringing back Bichette and then pursuing some pitching (both rotation and the bullpen) in free agency might make the Jays hard-strapped to add a player of Murakami’s ilk, as his contract might be out of the realm of what Rogers is willing to fork out this winter – regardless of how much money ownership made from the Jays 2024 playoff run. The Jays would love to bring in some power, but there are other priorities the Jays need to stopgap this offseason as well.

On the field, the fit for Murakami becomes a bit more complicated.

If Bichette doesn’t return to the Jays, Murakami has some route to playing time. Ernie Clement would shift to second base, Andres Gimenez to shortstop, and the Jays would slot Murakami at the hot corner to keep his and Santander and Springer’s bats (DH or OF) in the lineup. Addison Barger becomes a full-time right fielder, Varsho is in centre, and the duo of Springer/Santander split their time in left. Toronto has to take his fielding with face value, knowing that a move to first base is likely a better option (while also having to use Springer or Santander in left field), but the bats are all in the lineup regularly.

If Bichette does re-sign with the Jays, then some tough decisions will need to be made.

Essentially, if Bichette returns, then he and Gimenez split time up the middle, regardless of who takes which spot. That would leave Ernie Clement without a full-time position, unless he moves to third base, which would push Murakami to either first base or the DH spot. Those are also tied up, as Guerrero is the Jays’ first baseman for the very foreseeable future and Santander/Springer already have the DH spot occupied, with the ‘loser’ having to play in the outfield when the other is in this spot. The only way to remedy this logjam would be to have Springer and Santander in the corner outfield spots, which means Addison Barger has nowhere to go, and the Jays’ outfield defense takes a dramatic hit.

It is fair to argue that this is a temporary logjam, in that Springer and Varsho are free agent eligible following next season, so the Jays could move players around to accommodate Murakami once these two are no longer part of the equation. However, extensions and bringing these two players back are not out of the question, and if Springer replicates his 2025 season, there’s an easy argument to be made to keep him around and in the DH spot moving forward.

Adding Murakami does seem like a slam dunk from the power side, even if the strikeout concerns and the potential fit on the field are still in the mix. For the Jays, it seems like the fit revolves around a few different conclusions:

Adding a high-profile free agent like Murakami does come at a cost, as Kiley McDaniel at ESPN is predicting a $16 million AAV for the slugger, which doesn’t include the posting fee that has to go back to the Swallows. The Jays will also have to deal with opposing teams in on the mix, with the Yankees a potential suitor as well as West Coast teams like the Mariners, Giants, and Dodgers, who hold the geographical edge.

Overall, the Jays were close to signing Sasaki last winter, Shohei Ohtani the year before that, and have experience in signing professional international free agents, so Toronto does have some history to work with, even if they weren’t successful on all fronts. Adding Murakami makes sense from the power side, and some outside factors may impact whether the Blue Jays become a factor in the mix at the end of the day.

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