Three years ago, a 22-year-old third baseman of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows broke a 58-year-old record held by Sadaharu Oh. He smashed 56 home runs in just 141 games with a slashline of .318/.458/.710 with 134 RBI and 10.5 WAR to win his second straight Central League MVP award and the batting Triple Crown as the second NPB player of the 21st century. Many wondered what this young Japanese phenom could do next.

But reality delivered a curveball. The god-mode status vanished in the following seasons when the ‘Aaron Judge’ of Japan Munetaka Murakami hit just 31 homers in 2023 and 33 in 2024, and his batting average dropped from .318 to .256 in 2023 and .244 in 2024. And his strikeout rate exploded from 21 percent to 30 percent in just two years. This is where Analyst Ryan Garcia issued a b

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