Mariners' eyes should be firmly on scorching free agent target from Japan

As the regular season barrels toward its finish, the Seattle Mariners are walking a tightrope: push hard enough to win now, while also laying the foundation for tomorrow. October baseball isn’t the finish line, it’s the expectation.

What Seattle also needs is staying power, a roster built to withstand more than just a cameo in the postseason from trade deadline help that’s soon walking out of the door. A roster worthy of Cal Raleigh’s once-in-a-lifetime season.

But while every team is obsessing over bullpen usage, lineup optimization, or who’s going to step up in the rotation, there’s a name hovering on the horizon that the Mariners should already be dreaming about: Munetaka Murakami.

Mariners can’t afford to miss out on Munetaka Murakami’s MLB arrival

The 25-year-old slugging infielder is Japan’s latest export of jaw-dropping power, and if the whispers are true, he could be making the leap to Major League Baseball as soon as 2026. For a Mariners front office that may soon know the pain of losing Eugenio Suárez (for a second time) and Josh Naylor in the same offseason, Murakami feels less like a luxury and more like a necessity.

Let’s not bury the lede: Murakami hits baseballs so hard they probably need FAA clearance. He’s fresh off a stretch where he’s belted 17 home runs in just 34 games. That’s not only hot, that’s molten. And when you zoom out, the resume only looks more ridiculous.

Three years ago, Murakami smashed 56 homers, surpassing Sadaharu Oh’s iconic single-season record for a Japan-born player that had stood untouched since 1964. To put that into perspective, in a league where it takes about 60 plate appearances to see a home run, Murakami has done it once every nine at-bats this season. That’s the kind of power you don’t teach, it’s baked into the swing, into the wrists, and into the aura.

Yes, there are some red flags, he strikes out more than scouts would like, and he might not stick at third base long-term. But honestly, who cares? The Mariners aren’t hurting for glove-first utility guys. What they need is thunder. They need a middle-of-the-order force who can change a game with one violent swing, and Murakami is exactly that.

Jeff Passan recently noted Murakami’s name alongside other Japanese stars who could come over via the posting system, and here’s the kicker: he’ll still be just 25 when he hits free agency. That’s unheard of in modern baseball. The last player to hit the market that young was Alex Rodriguez, and we all remember how that turned out. 

Signing Murakami would mean buying his age-26 through age-29 seasons — prime years, the ones where bat speed and raw power peak. That’s the window you want to build a franchise around.

This offseason could be brutal for the Mariners. Allowing both Suárez and Naylor to walk without a clear plan would send the Mariners right back to square one, wasting momentum from a core that feels ready to compete for a title.

Think of it this way: in an AL West where the Astros and Rangers aren’t going anywhere, and the Dodgers lurk as the perennial powerhouse across the division line, the Mariners can’t afford to just keep pace. They need to leap ahead. Landing Murakami could do exactly that, and in a way that electrifies a fanbase desperate for more than “good enough.”

We don’t expect Mariners fans to spend the entire offseason refreshing their feeds, waiting for a Murakami headline. After all, they’ve been down this road before. The front office has kicked the tires on big names, flirted with upgrades, and too often ended up shopping the clearance rack instead. But Murakami represents something different: a rare chance to land a generational bat entering his prime.

Seattle can’t let that opportunity pass them by. The ball’s in Jerry Dipoto’s court. Let’s hope it doesn’t land 450 feet away, courtesy of Murakami, in another team’s uniform.