White Sox, Munetaka Murakami in no rush to extend contract

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The White Sox may have a choice regarding the future in Chicago of Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami. But then again, they may have no choice at all. He will be a free agent after the 2027 season, unless there is an extended lockout.

And now the genie is out of the bottle. The other 29 teams that failed to sign him — either interested or not — have now seen what he’s done in his six weeks since joining Major League Baseball on a two-year, $34 million contract. The financial numbers the second time around will dwarf that.

The Sox should try to extend him right now before it’s too late, although a member of the organization said Wednesday there have been no current talks.

Murakami said through his interpreter that right now he’s fine with all that.

“It’s very early in the season and still the start of my contract,” he said. “I’m really happy where I am at the moment. I’m not looking too far ahead, but if that time comes and the White Sox obviously feel happy with me and want to extend me more, I’d consider that an honor and that would be a happy situation for me as well.”

For the moment, he’s coming home as the Sox open a nine-game stand Friday night at Rate Field against the Mariners, not only having hit 14 homers with a .565 slugging percentage and .934 OPS, but he’s helped recast the team with his leadership and personality.

From a team sushi dinner to coming off the bench Tuesday night during a forced off-day to take two at-bats and play first base the rest of the game, Murakami has shown himself as a selfless teammate as interested in turning the previously moribund Sox into a winner as he is in establishing his own big-league presence.

“Let’s see what happens,” he added. “I’m just focusing on what’s in front of me and trying to get the results as much as possible. I’m not looking too far ahead. I’m trying to concentrate on what I can do at the moment.”

Murakami had a monster game on Monday in the Sox’s 6-0 win over the Angels, their only victory during the three-game series at Angel Stadium. He went 3-for-4, with a walk, a single, his first major-league double and a mammoth two-run homer into the shrubbery beyond the center field fence measuring 429 feet. His homer tied Aaron Judge at the time, but the Yankees star right-fielder has since hit No. 15 to retake the lead.

The homer Monday came in the fourth and the double in the sixth, leading Murakami to muse after that game, “It was going to come sooner or later so I’m really happy the double is out of the way.”

It’s not as if Murakami hasn’t hit doubles before. He hit 148 in eight seasons for the Yakult Swallows in Nippon Professional Baseball and 173 overall between foreign play and the World Baseball Classic. As far as homers are concerned he hit 246 in Japan and 265 around the rest of the world.

Two of his biggest homers came in international play. The first helped Team Japan defeat Team USA in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics baseball finale for its first-ever gold medal. Likewise in the 2023 WBC championship game, Murakami hit a two-run homer to tie the score late as again Japan beat the U.S. for the gold medal.

This is his pedigree.

Most Japanese players are creatures of habit, and when Sox manager Will Venable gave him a game off on Tuesday it might have stopped his momentum. He singled when he pinch hit in the sixth inning, but struck out in the eighth. He then followed that with four more whiffs in a row when back in the starting lineup on Wednesday, the Golden Sombrero as you will. He leads the league with 55 whiffs, which is the big knock on his game.

Murakami didn’t grouse. He was told a day in advance about the night off. But Venable and the coaching staff are obviously feeling their way along on how to handle him.

“That was his role that night and he played it well,” Venable said. “He had quality at-bats. Everybody has a job to do.”

No question, though, the contract clock is ticking.