With MLB free agency slowly but surely coming into shape, Los Angeles Dodgers fans have been scouring the rumor mill for the latest intel on who the next great superstar Andrew Frieman will land.
Will it be Kyle Tucker, the current bell of the MLB ball? Or maybe Cody Bellinger, who might just be tired of watching his former teammates win World Series games without him? Well, if Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s recent social media activities are of any indication, it would appear Dodgers fans should keep a close eye on “Murakami-sama,” himself, Munetaka Murakami, as he looks to take his game from the NPB to MLB.
Posing for a picture with the 25-year-old slugger while dining with Kenshiro Saito, Yamamoto had to know the interaction should make the rounds on social media and smiled for the camera all the same, setting off a firestorm among baseball fans that makes posting season all the more interesting.
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto and top Japanese free agent Munetaka Murakami grabbed dinner together
Standing 6-foot-2, 213 pounds, Murakami is a certified slugger the likes of which the NPB has seldom seen, leaving the league with 265 home runs on his resume. His 56 homers in 2022 broke a near-60-year record held by Sadaharu Oh, and even in 2025, a down year by his usual standards, he still hit 24 in just 69 total games. Though some question what position Murakami will play in MLB, be that his native third base, at first, or as a power-hitting DH, the Dodgers could easily platoon the 25-year-old with Max Muncy in 2026 and take over the spot in 2027, holding it down until Freddie Freeman rides off into the sunset a little further down the line.
Now granted, just because Murakami and Yamamoto had dinner together doesn’t mean the former is a guaranteed lock to join the latter in Dodgers blue next spring. Another team could make a better offer, or Murakami could simply decide he wants to be a big fish in a small pond, instead of just another Japanese player on the Dodgers. And yet, for a player who came up watching Shohei Ohtani dominate in Japan and then America, why wouldn’t Murakami strongly consider teaming up with the “Unicorn,” Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki to really make a proper go of things at a three-peat?
