New MLB Rumors on Teruaki Sato's Top Landing Spots as Scouts Compare Star to Munetaka Murakami

The market for Japanese star Teruaki Sato continues to fill out with a new American League suitor entering the mix.

Per The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon, the Texas Rangers have expressed an interest in Sato after he was posted by the Hanshin Tigers on Nov. 1.

The Rangers join a group that includes the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres as clubs believed to have some level of interest in Sato.

Sato's game has been compared in many ways to Chicago White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami, who was the biggest NPB star posted last year after a terrific eight-season run with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.

Per Sammon, Cody Stavenhagen and Patrick Mooney of The Athletic, scouts were particularly effusive about Sato's power which one talent evaluator graded as 70 raw.

For perspective, Murakami was viewed as having 80-grade raw power. He was able to translate that to 35 homers in his rookie year with the White Sox.

Sato, like Murakami, has had high strikeout rates in NPB. He has struck out at least 137 times in each of his six seasons with the Tigers, including a total of 327 over the past two years.

The Athletic story noted scouts view Sato as having "less swing-and-miss" than Murakami, but some evaluators "greatly prefer" the latter's swing because of how Sato sets up in the box:

"Unlike Murakami, Sato is less open with his stance and setup, somewhat parallel to the pitcher. Some who have studied Sato wonder if he's going to get tied up against lefties. That didn't happen in Japan, but he was not facing the same kind of hard-throwing pitchers."

Sato's accolades in NPB are very similar to Murakami. Both players won the triple crown — Murakami in 2022, Sato in 2026. Murakami won two Central League MVP awards in 2021 and 2022; Sato won one in 2025.

Murakami's peak years in NPB were better than Sato's. He had three years with an OPS over 1.000. Sato's single-season career-high in OPS was .991, done in 2026.

Due to questions teams had about Murakami's bat translating to MLB, he took a cheaper-than-expected two-year deal worth $34 million from the White Sox.

Murakami hit .207/.347/.478 in 127 games during the 2026 season. Even though the batting average was low and strikeouts were high (196 in 553 plate appearances), the on-base and power skills easily translated against MLB pitching.

Sato will likely benefit from Murakami's success because MLB clubs can point to what he did and feel comfortable that someone with a similar skill set is going to be able to step in as a valuable contributor right away.