DataBaseball
2026
Munetaka Murakami headshot

Players · M · 1B · 2026

Munetaka Murakami

Age
26
B/T
L/R
Height
6' 2"
Weight
213 lb
Number
#5
Born
February 2, 2000 in Kumamoto, Japan
MLB debut
March 26, 2026
dbWAR
3.2
1 season(s)
PA
544
AVG
.209
OBP
.351
SLG
.483
wRC+
133
100 = avg

Munetaka Murakami is a first baseman for the Chicago White Sox. So far in 2026 he has hit 35 home runs and knocked in 77 RBIs, notching 93 hits across 544 plate appearances in 125 games. His batting average is .209, 14.3% lower than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .351 clip and slugged .483, for an OPS of .834, 16.1% higher than the league mark of .719 — the third best on his team, and 35th of 462 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 93.9 mph off the bat, hit 57.0% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 17.1% of them and made contact on 57.7% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 133 wRC+ puts his offence 33% above average. That comes to 3.2 dbWAR — +19.7 runs with the bat, +0.5 for the ballpark, -1.8 on the bases, +2.4 on double plays, -7.0 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.

League context

Percentile among qualified batters, 2026.

wRC+133
wOBA.362
ISO.274
BB%16.9%
WAR3.2

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2026. These terms sum to +30.7 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR. There is no fielding term.

Batting+19.7Ballpark+0.5Baserunning-1.8Double plays+2.4Position-7.0Replacement+16.8
BattingBallparkBaserunningDouble playsPositionReplacement

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2026CWS125544933577192193.209.351.483.274.26616.9%35.5%.362+19.71333.2—

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2026. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHP1631272373358.181.356.378.33735.6%
vs RHP381318702859135.220.349.525.37335.4%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.

Loading 253 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 251 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
17.1%
43 barrels
Exit velocity
93.9
mph average
Max exit velo
114.1
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
57.0%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
31.2%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
15.7°
average
Barrel rate17.1%
Exit velocity93.9 mph
Hard hit rate57.0%
Contact rate57.7%

A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2026.

.059.000.117.029.18527 AB.16724 AB.15819 AB.25547 AB.31760 AB.20035 AB.24154 AB.33342 AB.41217 AB
Below averageLeague averageAbove average
Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .243.

Situational hitting

How Munetaka Murakami hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.

Split by
By who is on base when he comes up. The season line is repeated as the baseline.
SituationPAABHHRRBIBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBA
All situations544——————.209.351.483.362
Bases empty29725551181840111.200.313.455.337
Runner on first1411112711252845.243.404.577.424
Runners on2471904217595282.221.397.521.394
RISP10679156342437.190.387.443.351

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.

Head to head

Put Munetaka Murakami beside up to three others.

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Munetaka Murakami

Similar players

Nearest 2026 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.