ATLANTA — When Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami signed with the White Sox this past winter, he reached out to Cubs veteran Seiya Suzuki for advice.
“[It was] nothing really about baseball,’’ Suzuki said through his translator Sunday morning in Texas before the Cubs flew to Atlanta to open a three-game set against the Braves that starts Tuesday. “More about Chicago, you know — where to live, where to eat.”
Because Murakami would be playing on the South Side, Suzuki recommended finding a place downtown.
“Nearby, and good security,” he said.
And did Murakami take his advice?
“I don’t know where he is,” Suzuki said. “I haven’t seen him.”
That changes this weekend, when Suzuki and the Cubs will travel to Rate Field for the first round of the Crosstown Series with the Sox. The teams meet again in August at Wrigley Field.
Murakami has been a revelation in his first MLB season, hitting 15 home runs in his first 38 games, which put him third in the majors ahead of play Monday, one homer behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber. He announced his arrival by homering in each of his first three games, then in five straight games from April 17 to 22.
Can Murakami Mania be far behind, especially with the Sox flirting with first place in the American League Central?
“I think it’s impressive,” Suzuki said, “especially because the environment has changed for him. If he was putting up those numbers in Japan, I wouldn’t be surprised. But since coming over to a different country and stadium, and he’s still doing the same thing, that’s impressive.”
Despite hitting 246 home runs in eight seasons with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball’s Central League, including a career-high 56 homers in 2022, Murakami attracted limited interest when he announced his intentions to play in the United States. The Sox, facing limited competition, were able to sign him to a two-year, $34 million deal. Contrast that with the five-year, $85 million deal that Suzuki signed with the Cubs before the 2022 season.
Murakami already has exceeded the 14 homers Suzuki hit in 111 games during that first season in Chicago.
“My first year, you know, all of my teammates, everybody was really nice to me,” Suzuki said. “It was nice to be around.
“But I think, with the [different] food and everything, I think it wasn’t until my second year that I felt acclimated.”
Suzuki missed the first dozen games of this season after hurting his right knee attempting to steal second base while playing for Japan in the World Baseball Classic against Venezuela, the eventual champion. The injury was diagnosed as a minor sprain of the posterior cruciate ligament, which runs down the back of the knee, connecting the thigh bone to the shinbone. It’s far less common than an injury to the anterior cruciate ligament, according to the Cleveland Clinic, accounting for about 20% of knee ligament injuries.
Suzuki has recovered to hit seven home runs through the Cubs’ first 41 games, which puts him on a pace to hit 28 this season, four fewer than last season’s 32. The most he hit in a single season in Japan was 38 in 2021, the year before he signed with the Cubs.
Another Japanese slugger, third baseman Kazuma Okamoto, also made his big-league debut this season, so far hitting 10 home runs for the Blue Jays. He and Murakami are both ahead of Suzuki and Dodgers designated hitter and pitcher Shohei Ohtani, who was off to a slow start with just six home runs, well behind the pace that led to his major-league-best 54 and 55 home runs in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
All four players represented Team Japan in the WBC this spring. Is there a rivalry?
“There’s no real sense of competition,” Suzuki said. “It’s more like you check in on what they’re doing, and it gives you a little motivation. You know they’re working hard, and you want to work hard.”
All four players spoke frequently to each other then, although not as much recently.
“Everybody’s doing well,” Suzuki said. “I think it’s a good thing, especially for younger Japanese players that aspire to come to Major League Baseball. I think watching us, they’ll work harder.”
At 26, Murakami is the youngest of the four. Okamoto turns 30 at the end of June, Ohtani 32 in July and Suzuki 32 a month later.
Veteran reporter Katsushi Nagao of Kyodo News said Suzuki isn’t really regarded in Japan as a prototypical home-run hitter — and doesn’t see himself that way, either.
“In the spring,” Nagao said, “I would ask Seiya about Murakami, and he would say, ‘It might take him time to get used to [MLB], but he’s going to hit home runs. But not me.”
Statistics compiled by MLB’s Baseball Savant suggest Suzuki doesn’t have the classic slugger’s uppercut. Murakami, on the other hand, has an attack angle of 19%, which ranks third in MLB. Okamoto is at 16%, Ohtani 13% (like Judge) and Suzuki 10%.
“In Japan, they’re comparing Shohei and Murakami because Murakami is at such a hot pace,” Nagao said.
Nagao noted that in Japan, it’s customary to be deferential to your elders.
“Seiya said to me, ‘I don’t really check [Murakami’s] stats every day, but he’s a nice follower of me.’ They are close, but not like brothers. I’m sure this weekend, they will be chatting with each other.”
There is a special pride, Suzuki said, in seeing his countrymen thrive.
“For me, especially when I came over, there were a lot of [Japanese] right-handed hitters who had difficulty adjusting to the league,” he said. “I feel like I was able to kind of break that wall down, where there are plenty of right-handed hitters from Japan who can come over and produce, like Okamoto.
“I think in Japan right now, the popularity of baseball is going down a little bit — not as many younger kids watching the games. The guys who are playing here now, myself included, want to increase that interest, not only for the fans but for the players who might want to come over.”
