Though the Chicago White Sox may have broken the hearts of the Pope, Barack Obama and millions of other Southsiders when their 2–0 American League Division Series lead turned to a 3–2 defeat at the hands of the Cleveland Guardians, it was nonetheless a season to remember for a club that The Athletic ranked 28th in the league during spring training.
One of many bright spots for the team in its 2026 campaign was rookie first baseman Munetaka Murakami, who finished fifth in the American League in homers, becoming the first Japanese-born player to tally more than 30 in year one. It was an up-and-down season for the slugger, who ultimately posted a .207/.347/.478 slash line, but his explosive start to the season was undoubtedly crucial in setting the Sox on a winning trajectory, and his off-the-field energy was praised by manager Will Venable for making a “massive impact on [the] group, on and off the field.”
But look at Murakami in the locker room, in the dugout after batting practice or in any number of press conferences throughout the season, and you’ll see someone else by his side. Joining a history of interpreter-backed Japanese imports that includes names like Kenta Maeda, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and — more infamously — Shohei Ohtani, Murakami enlisted corporate businessman-turned-translator Kenzo Yagi to bridge the linguistic gap between him and his newfound American fanbase.
As the season went on, Yagi began to be more to the team than just its first baseman’s mouthpiece. When the team clinched its first post-season berth since 2021, Yagi stood alongside Mune, beer in hand and a smile on his face.
It’s heartwarming to see a team embrace an outsider so quickly, but this locker room dynamic may be more than just a feel-good story. The Japanese presence in the league has been growing steadily in what could be called the “Ohtani Boom,” and for years now, more than a quarter of MLB has come from abroad. With players like Murakami and the Japanese trio of Ohtani, Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki finding massive success in the States, more newcomers will soon arrive, forcing ballclubs to secure reliable translation. While MLB mandates Spanish-language interpreters for all teams, it has no such regulation for players from Japan and other Asian countries. Players become linked to their translators and vice versa — where one goes, so does the other.
Only 14 Japanese players are currently rostered in MLB, so it’s understandable that the league isn’t ready to impose a rule on every team, but dugouts should still take notice of the dynamic that has evolved in Chicago as the need for solid interpreters grows. As Babe Ruth reportedly said, a team with players who struggle to work together “won’t be worth a dime.” A team can’t be cohesive if its players don’t understand each other, and that starts with how translators treat the players they work with, and how the team treats them.
