GLENDALE, Ariz. — Munetaka Murakami had some nerves when he arrived at Chicago White Sox camp.
That quickly disappeared.
“Teammates, the locker room staff, even the coaches, everyone’s really, really nice and welcoming,” Murakami said through an interpreter on Saturday afternoon at Camelback Ranch. “So I’m getting used to it now and really happy to be here.”
The two-time Nippon Professional Baseball Japanese Central League Most Valuable Player is fitting right in as he begins his first spring in the big leagues after signing a two-year deal with the Sox in the offseason.
While the first full-squad workout is Sunday, Murakami already has displayed some of his prodigious power during batting practice over the past few days as one of the many position players arriving early to camp.
“He has a really good understanding of his swing and his process,” shortstop Colson Montgomery said.
Murakami also has been a hit off the field.
“He’s really impressive,” Sox assistant general manager Josh Barfield said Thursday at spring training media days in Scottsdale. “The first thing that sticks out is the personality. He’s already quickly adjusted to the clubhouse, he’s laughing and joking. His English is really solid too.
“So really excited to have him. And just on the field, he’s special. He lost a lot of balls in BP. We are excited to get to know him better and watch him play. I think he’s going to be pretty special.”
After spending the last eight seasons with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, with whom he hit 246 home runs, Murakami is adapting to the “span of the practices and the routines.”
“In Japan compared to the majors here, it’s a bit more short term,” Murakami said. “So I have to get used to that going in. But it’s more about the routine and going through each day in practices and getting used to it.”
Saturday’s workout included Murakami rocketing a ball off the wall during live batting practice.
“It’s real power, whatever ballpark or whatever ball he’s hitting,” Barfield said. “I don’t think there’s any questions about how that’s going to translate. One of the knocks on him was the miss, and I think that’s something we feel he’s going to be able to make some adjustments.
“We’ve already started to attack some things in the swing. I know (director of hitting Ryan) Fuller and (hitting coach Derek) Shomon have identified some things. Coming over, those guys don’t face the same velocity on a day to day basis, so there’s going to be a little bit of that adjustment period. He’s a competitor, he does a lot of things really well at the plate. I expect him to make that adjustment fairly quickly.”
Asked about transferring the power, Murakami said, “It’s about going into games and seeing what I can do and can’t do. It’s so early in this stage to figure that out.”
Murakami, 26, also is working on his defense at first base.
“He looks good,” manager Will Venable said Saturday. “He’s extremely committed to improving on defense. He’s going to play mostly at first base, there’ll be some third base.
“He’s very passionate about playing third base but wants to do anything that he can to help our team win and is extremely committed to improving over there.”
Murakami said the defensive priority so far has been “doing the normal basic stuff, backhands, forehands, just getting used to it, getting all the balls so that I can make the basic plays.”
As for the possibility of seeing some time at third, Murakami added, “Third base was always obviously one of my positions to play and anything I can do to help the team win and to push my fullest potential is why I have to keep doing it.”
The team bonding has included helping others learn Japanese.
“To be honest, everybody is coming with Japanese to me as well,” Murakami said.
Murakami also got a kick out of the initial misspelling of his name on the nameplate in the clubhouse.
“It was completely funny,” he said. “I thought it was a joke. No hard feelings to the organization. It was crazy funny.”
That went viral on social media, as did the addition of a bidet to the Sox clubhouse.
“Basically what I did was told them how great the bidet is,” Murakami said. “It’s good for the environment too, right? Everybody uses too much toilet paper.”
Overall, Murakami is enjoying “just the everyday life” of Sox camp. He’s trying to soak up as much as he can before joining Team Japan for the World Baseball Classic.
“By extending (his stay with the Sox) to the 27th (of February), I get more at-bats, get into games more,” Murakami said. “It helps more both Team Japan and the White Sox, and this is what I really wanted to do — get used to the games and get the most at-bats.”
