CHICAGO – First-year White Sox hitting coach Derek Shomon’s reaction upon hearing of Munetaka Murakami joining the team via a two-year, $34 million deal is fairly representative for the entire fan base.
“Very exciting," Shomon told MLB.com of the first baseman’s decision. "I was right in the middle of something when I got the call and dropped what I was doing to take a second and celebrate it. I’m looking forward to getting in touch with him soon and getting some stuff moving.”
Murakami, 25, got in touch with White Sox nation Monday when he was officially announced during a press conference at Rate Field. It’s the first player press conference of this ilk on the South Side since Andrew Benintendi joined via a five-year, $75 million deal in January 2023.
But the addition of Murakami is different than any other made during this latest rebuild. The Triple Crown winner for the Yakult Swallows at age 22 in 2022, with 56 home runs, 134 RBIs and a .318 average, becomes just the fourth Japanese player to suit up for the White Sox. His immense popularity in Japan and the huge talent hype coming with his arrival is unique even compared to Tadahito Iguchi and Shingo Takatsu, who helped the team win the 2005 World Series.
“We haven’t had a guy of this caliber. Not to this popularity,” White Sox executive vice president, chief revenue/marketing officer Brooks Boyer told MLB.com. “Those guys were 20 years ago, well before how you distribute information, how instant information can go: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, whatever platform you want. You can get information and highlights to people across the world instantaneously.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to be able to market internationally, to grow the White Sox brand internationally and to help him and some of his teammates with growing their individual brands. That’s something we look forward to on the business side.”
Boyer pointed to how the Cubs have marketed Shota Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki and the Dodgers with Shohei Ohtani, Roki Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto as gameplans for his organization.
“There’s plenty of things, but the first thing we want the guy to do is focus on baseball,” Boyer said. “All the other stuff, it’s marketing, endorsements or whatever it may be, all that takes care of itself when we put him in the best position to be successful on the field.
“Players like this help us grow the game. But as much as Japanese fans or fans of baseball in Japan want to see their guys compete at the big league level, White Sox fans want to see the White Sox be more competitive at the big league level. You have multiple fan bases that are going to be rooting for this guy to be successful.”
An infrastructure is being set up by general manager Chris Getz and the front office to help take care of all on and off the field needs during this transition for Murakami, who talked to Suzuki and Imanaga about living in Chicago after signing. Shomon is ready to get going with the left-handed slugger from an offensive standpoint.
“There’s going to be stuff you have to work on, always and forever,” Shomon said. “From one year to another, it could change. You problem solve one thing, the league adjusts and you have to problem solve that thing. It’s a constant cat and mouse game.
“His work ethic is there, the excitement is there. He wants to be challenged, and because of that there’s a real opportunity to get ahead of these things once he gets here and he’s in the mix. Triple Crown, clutch hits in WBC, there’s real stuff there.”
That real stuff had his new teammates intrigued during the team’s stealth pursuit.
“I’ve heard from a couple of players: ‘Is this real?’” a smiling Getz said. “I gave it a thumbs up. I guess that goes back, I still can’t believe it stayed quiet.”