With over 40 video games remaining within the MLB season, 2026 is shaping as much as be among the best years for Japanese-born hitters — and it is being led by a pair of rookies.
USA TODAY analyzed dwelling run information for Japanese-born gamers to uncover the one seasons with probably the most homers hit by such gamers.
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Munetaka Murakami of the Chicago White Sox has hit 26 dwelling runs in his first MLB season to date. That’s tied for the ninth-best dwelling run season by a Japanese-born participant.
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Fellow rookie Kazuma Okamoto of Toronto is 2 dwelling runs again with 24. Each gamers have hit extra homers than every other Japanese-born rookie, eclipsing the 22-homer season Shohei Ohtani had in 2018.
It is also value noting that Ohtani is at 26 homers, too, though he’s nicely previous being a rookie in his ninth MLB season.
Murakami is on tempo to hit 40 dwelling runs if he maintains his present tempo and performs in all 45 of the White Sox’s remaining video games. A 40-home run 12 months would rank because the fifth-highest single-season whole by a Japanese-born MLB participant, behind 4 Ohtani seasons.
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Okamoto, in the meantime, is on tempo for 33, which might be close to Ohtani’s 34-homer season in 2022.
Ohtani is between Murakami and Okamoto with a projected dwelling run whole of 36.
Ought to Murakami, Okamoto and Ohtani all hit 30-plus dwelling runs, it will be the primary season that three Japanese-born gamers have hit 30 or extra dwelling runs in a single MLB season.
Ohtani and Seiya Suzuki grew to become the primary pair to take action in the identical season in 2025. Suzuki has 19 homers for the Chicago Cubs this season and is projected to complete with 27.
Apart from Ohtani and Suzuki, just one different Japanese participant has hit greater than 30 homers in a single season: Hideki Matsui, who hit 31 for the New York Yankees in 2004.
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Methodology: Dwelling run information from Stathead and Baseball-Reference. Ages are calculated as of June 30 for the given season. 2026 totals are by means of August 10. Projections use every participant’s present home-run price per recreation and assume he seems in each remaining staff recreation.
This text initially appeared on USA TODAY: Murakami, Ohtani, Okamoto may make Japanese MLB dwelling run historical past