Sources: Munetaka Murakami to join White Sox on 2-year deal - ESPN

Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami and the Chicago White Sox are in agreement on a two-year, $34 million contract, sources told ESPN on Sunday, landing the home run record-setter in Nippon Professional Baseball with a rebuilding team making its first free agent splash in years.

Murakami, 25, was arguably the most fascinating player to hit free agency this winter. A 6-foot-2, 230-pound left-handed slugger with elite exit velocity, he was the youngest player on the market and heads to Major League Baseball with 246 home runs in his eight seasons for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.

He has been a star in Japan since he hit 36 home runs as a 19-year-old in 2019. He followed that up with 56 home runs in 2022, breaking the record for a Japan-born player set in 1964 by Sadaharu Oh. Murakami, a two-time Central League MVP, missed time last season with an oblique injury but hit 22 home runs in 56 games with a .273/.379/.663 slash line.

While projections for Murakami to hit a financial jackpot preceded his free agency, concerns about his defense — he can play third base or first base — and his propensity to swing and miss at pitches in the zone caused a slower market than anticipated ahead of his 5 p.m. ET Monday deadline to sign.

Though teams tried to get in for lower-dollar long-term deals, Murakami opted for a higher-dollar short-term offering, allowing himself to prove his ability to adjust to superior MLB pitching.

Should he do so, Murakami would hit the market again at 27 and be primed to cash in on a megadeal, similar to how other free agents in recent seasons with softer-than-expected markets parlayed short-term contracts into long-term paydays.

The leap in Murakami's strikeout rate over the past three years (over 28% each