Yakult Swallows Murakami Munetaka (24) of the Japanese professional baseball league is trying to advance to the Major League. 메이저놀이터
Japanese media Daily Sports said on the 2nd, “Yakurt Murakami, who won two gold medals this year, renewed his contract with an annual salary of 600 million yen (about 5.6 billion won). Next season is the last season in Japan before entering the Major League.”
Murakami is Japan’s leading home run hitter with a batting average of 270 (792 hits in 2930 at-bats), 224 homers, 600 RBIs, 501 runs, 55 steals, and OPS.945 in 836 games of the Japanese pro baseball. In 2022, he posted a batting average of 318 (155 hits in 487) with 56 homers, 134 RBIs, 114 runs, 12 steals and OPS of 1.168 in 141 games, breaking the record for the most homers by a Japanese player. He also achieved triple crown and won MVP in the league.
After his best season, Murakami signed a three-year contract extension worth 1.8 billion yen (approximately 16.9 billion won) with Yakult after the 2022 season. However, Murakami has not displayed the same performance since then. During the early days of the season, Murakami had a batting average of 256 (127 hits in 496 times at bat), 31 homers, 84 RBIs, 76 runs and five steals with an OPS of .875 in 140 games.
He suffered greatly in the early days of this season as he was directly hit by the pitching strike that hit the Japanese pro baseball again this year. However, he recovered his pace and finished 143 games with a batting average of 244 (for 122 hits in 500 times at bat), 33 homers, 86 RBIs, 82 runs, 10 steals, and OPS.851. Although his performance based on the number of pitches he posted was not impressive, he became the first in homers in the Central League and the first in RBIs. Next year is the last season of the extended contract that he signed after the end of the 2022 season.
