White Sox Adding Bidet in Clubhouse After Japanese Star Munetaka Murakami's Contract

Japanese star and recent Chicago White Sox signee Munetaka Murakami had a pretty specific request while touring the team facilities after inking his two-year, $34 million deal with the team.

"One thing that stood out, one thing he did notice is I think we didn't have a bidet in our locker room," general manager Chris Getz told Scott Merkin of MLB.com. "That's something that's new to him, and we are putting one in. So, it was like, 'Ok, that's new. We can do that.'"

The White Sox had plenty of reasons to facilitate that request. The hope is that Murakami, one of Japan's best power hitters, will improve the product on the field for an organization that has lost 100 or more games in three straight seasons.

But there's also a marketing side to the addition.

"You look at what the Los Angeles Dodgers have done. They have the unicorn in [Shohei] Ohtani. They also have [Yoshinobu] Yamamoto and [Roki] Sasaki," White Sox executive vice president Brooks Boyer told Merkin. "Those Dodger games are distributed significantly back to Japan, which makes that a very attractive product to the Japanese sponsorship market. When you talk about Murakami, being a Triple Crown winner in Japan, being a hero in the last [World Baseball Classic], being young, there's a lot of interest in Japan for our games that will go back there. That opens some unique opportunities. ... The Cubs have taken advantage of this with [Shota] Imanaga and [Seiya] Suzuki, and we are just kind of following the Dodgers playbook. How to best extend our brand to the Japanese market, which obviously draws interest from Japanese-based sponsors."

So yes, the bidet will be approved.