Fellow Japanese player surpasses Shohei Ohtani in stat Dodgers fans can't believe

Shohei Ohtani, you've got company in the record books! Actually, you've been surpassed, at least on this occasion. Last Wednesday, Chicago White Sox rookie slugger Munetaka Murakami hit his 10th home run of the young season, and in doing so, achieved a mark that even the GOAT Ohtani did not achieve in his rookie MLB season with the Los Angeles Angels.

Murakami's 10 homers through his first 24 MLB games are by far the most home runs hit by any Japanese-born MLB player through their first 24 games, with Ohtani tied in second place with six home runs over that stretch.

Munetaka Murakami outslugs Shohei Ohtani to begin rookie season

Murakami hit another homer on Friday, giving him an MLB-leading 11 on the season (tied with Houston Astros' Yordan Alvarez). It's safe to say that Murakami has already exceeded expectations for his debut season in the show. While the widespread fears about his strikeout tendencies have been validated somewhat (39 whiffs so far this year), Murakami has wowed in so many other ways, and it's not just about the 11 dingers.

Murakami's plate discipline is outstanding. Yes, he strikes out, but Murakami rarely swings at pitches outside of the zone. He forces pitchers to challenge him, and while he's susceptible to swing-and-miss, he's also got the power to punish pitchers for attacking him at the wrong moment, or with the wrong pitch selection.

Murakami is hitting lots of homers, but he's not doing much else

Though it's fun to acknowledge that Murakami is on a more powerful pace than rookie Ohtani, let's not forget that Ohtani won American League Rookie of the Year in 2018 with a 285/.361/.564/.925 slash line and 22 homers. He also made 10 starts that season as a pitcher and went 4-2 with a 3.31 ERA over 51 2/3 innings.

So, yeah, Murakami has some work to do. The 26-year-old rookie was slashing .242/.381/.589/.970 entering Sunday with zero doubles or triples so far, an indicator that he might end up being the feast-or-famine slugger that scared off a ton of executives in free agency and enabled the White Sox to sign Murakami to a short-term deal.

But why compare Murakami to Ohtani for more than the 15 or 30 seconds it takes to describe Murakami's impressive start? Ohtani does more on a baseball diamond than anyone in the history of the sport, and he's also proven to be effective at off-field duties like recruiting talented players to the Dodgers. It will behoove Murakami to carve his own path, and he's definitely started doing so in Chicago.

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