CHICAGO (AP) — White Sox left-hander Anthony Kay spent the past two years in Japan pitching for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars and got a good look at Munetaka Murakami in the opposing batter's box.
The Japanese slugger brings some much-needed pop to Chicago's lineup, and Kay looks forward to seeing the impact Murakami has on their new team.
“He was not fun to face,” Kay said.
Though he wasn't on hand, Murakami was a big topic of conversation at the White Sox fan festival this weekend. He got a big ovation when his name was announced on Friday, and he was featured in a video that he wrapped up by saying “Go White Sox!”
Chicago expects Murakami, who turns 26 on Monday, to deliver in a big way after signing a $34 million, two-year contract in late December. He hit .270 with 246 homers and 647 RBIs in 892 games over eight seasons with the Yakult Swallows of Japan’s Central League.
The left-handed-batting corner infielder launched 56 home runs in 2022 to break Sadaharu Oh’s record for a Japanese-born player in Nippon Professional Baseball while becoming the youngest player to win the triple crown there. He hit more than 30 homers four straight years before an oblique injury limited him last season.
Murakami finished 2025 with 24 homers and 47 RBIs in 56 games. He said at his introductory news conference in Chicago that he has recovered and is ready to show what he can do in the majors.
The White Sox are looking forward to it, too.
“I was excited,” shortstop Colson Montgomery said. “I knew who he was because I watched him in the World Baseball Classic and I saw him tear it up. The fact that we have him on our team, I'm happy about that. I'd rather him be on our team than anyone else's. I think I could just tell the excitement that he had. You can kind of see that he’s very excited to be with this core group that we have and be able to just go out there and win games.”
Murakami came through with some big hits to help Japan win the 2023 World Baseball Classic. His game-ending double off Giovanny Gallegos drove in Shohei Ohtani and Masataka Yoshida for a 6-5 semifinal win over Mexico. The following day in the championship game, Murakami hit a tying home run off Merrill Kelly in the second inning and Japan went on to beat the United States 3-2.
Murakami is joining a team with three straight 100-loss seasons and back-to-back last-place finishes in the AL Central. The White Sox went 60-102 last year, though they also made a 19-game improvement from 2024, when they finished 41-121 and set a modern-era major league record for losses.
Chicago was second to last in the American League with 165 home runs last season. But with Murakami joining a promising core of young hitters that includes Montgomery, Kyle Teel and Chase Meidroth, the White Sox expect to have more pop.
“Obviously, the power is real,” manager Will Venable said. “We’ve seen that from afar. But he’s just somebody that’s really committed to getting better. I think that’s been really apparent in the communication that we’ve had with him. He talks a lot about his defense. He wants to be a great baserunner, and so just to be on the ground floor with him and go to work and see him go about his business is going to be really exciting.”
One knock against Murakami is his contact and strikeout rates. He struck out 977 times in 3,780 plate appearances over eight seasons with Yakult, but he also had a .557 slugging percentage and 614 walks.
“He does hit a lot of homers,” Kay said. “He didn't have any problem with the velocity I had. I don't understand why he can't have a lot of success over here. There will probably be an adjustment period for him. Pitchers might be able to figure him out for a little bit, but he's a good enough hitter where he can also make adjustments.”
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FILE - Chicago White Sox general manager Chris Getz talks with reporters before a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays, April 26, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
FILE - Chicago White Sox manager Will Venable stands before a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Sept. 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)
FILE - Newly acquired Chicago White Sox infielder Munetaka Murakami, right, poses with Chicago White Sox executive vice president/ general manager Chris Getz, left, at Rate Field during a press conference Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty, File)
Many have denied having close ties to the late financier, or at least having anything to do with his alleged sexual abuse of girls and young women that led to his arrest on sex trafficking charges.
None have been charged with a crime connected to the investigation. Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019. Yet some of them maintained friendships with Epstein, or developed them anew, even after he became known as a predator of young girls and registered sex offender.
Here’s a primer on some of the notable names in the Epstein files:
The man formerly known as Britain’s Prince Andrew has long been dogged by questions about his relationship with Epstein, including allegations from the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre that she was trafficked by Epstein and instructed to have sex with Mountbatten-Windsor when she was 17.
The former prince has repeatedly denied that it happened, but his brother, King Charles III, still stripped him of his royal titles late last year, including the right to be called a prince and the Duke of York.
Mountbatten-Windsor’s name appears at least several hundred times in Friday’s document release, including in Epstein’s private emails.
Among the correspondence is an invitation for Epstein to dine at Buckingham Palace, Epstein’s offer to introduce Mountbatten-Windsor to a 26-year-old Russian woman, and photos that appear to show Mountbatten-Windsor kneeling over an unidentified woman lying on the floor.
The billionaire Tesla founder turns up at least a few times in Friday’s document release, notably in email exchanges in 2012 and 2013 in which he discussed visiting Epstein’s infamous Caribbean island compound.
But it’s not immediately clear if the island visits took place. Spokespersons for Musk’s companies, Tesla and X, didn’t respond to emails seeking comment Friday or Saturday.
Musk has maintained that he repeatedly turned down the disgraced financier’s overtures. “Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED,” he posted on X in 2025.
The New York Giants co-owner is mentioned more than 400 times in the files released Friday. Correspondence between the two shows Epstein offered to connect Tisch to numerous women over the years.
In one 2013 email exchange with the subject line “Ukrainian girl,” Epstein encouraged Tisch to contact a particular woman, whose physical beauty he praised in crude terms.
“Pro or civilian?” Tisch asked in reply.
Tisch, a scion of a powerful New York family that founded the Loews Corporation, has acknowledged knowing Epstein but denied ever going to his infamous Caribbean island.
“We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy and investments,” said Tisch, who also won an Academy Award in 1994 for producing “Forrest Gump.” “As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.”
President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island with his family on at least one occasion, records released Friday show.
That appears to contradict prior statements he’s made claiming he cut ties with the disgraced financier, who he’s called “gross,” decades ago.
But emails show Lutnick and his wife accepted an invitation to Little St. James in the U.S. Virgin Islands in December 2012 and planned to arrive by yacht with their children.
The former chairman of Newmark, a major commercial real estate firm, also had drinks on another occasion in 2011 with Epstein and corresponded with him about the construction of a building across the street from both of their homes.
The Commerce Department, in a statement, said Lutnick had “limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing.”
The billionaire Google co-founder made plans to meet with Epstein and his longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell at his townhouse in New York years before he was publicly accused of sexually abusing underage girls, emails show.
In one exchange in 2003, Maxwell invited him to join her at a screening of the Renee Zellweger film “Down with Love” in New York.
She followed up a few weeks later to invite him to a “happily casual and relaxed” dinner at Epstein’s house. Brin offered to bring along Google’s then-CEO Eric Schmidt.
Spokespersons for Google didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday.
The one-time adviser to Trump exchanged hundreds of friendly texts with Epstein, some sent months before his 2019 arrest and jailhouse suicide.
The two discussed politics, travel and a documentary Bannon was said to be planning that would help salvage Epstein’s reputation.
One 2018 exchange, for example, focused on Trump’s threats at the time to oust Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. In a 2019 message, Bannon asked Epstein if he could supply his plane to pick him up in Rome.
Bannon hasn’t responded to emails seeking comment.
A national security adviser to the Slovakian prime minister, Lajcak resigned Saturday after his past communications with Epstein appeared in Friday’s document release.
Opposition parties and a nationalist partner in Fico’s governing coalition had called for him to step down.
Lajcak, a former Slovak foreign minister and a onetime president of the U.N. General Assembly, has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but was photographed meeting with Epstein in the years between his initial release from jail and his subsequent indictment in 2019 on sex trafficking charges.
He said his correspondence with Epstein were part of his diplomatic duties.
Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Group Limited, invited Epstein to his private island in 2013, telling him in an email: “Any time you’re in the area would love to see you. As long as you bring your harem!”
Besides discussing Epstein visiting Branson’s Necker Island, in the British Virgin Islands, the two exchanged messages about philanthropy, Epstein’s ideas for a “disruptive” financial system and a “social good currency."
In one email, in 2011, Epstein said he offered Branson’s staff the use of his helicopter to transport an accident victim in the Virgin Islands.
In a Sept. 11, 2013 correspondence, Branson suggested Epstein could boost his public image if he could get Bill Gates to say “you’ve been a brilliant adviser to him, that you slipped up many years ago by sleeping with a 17 1/2 year old woman and were punished for it, that you’ve more than learnt your lesson and have done nothing that’s against the law since.”
A Branson spokesperson told the British news outlet the Independent that Branson’s “harem” comment referred to adult members of Epstein’s staff.
Branson later decided to sever ties with Epstein, the spokesperson said, after learning more about the “serious allegations” that had been made against him.
“Had they had the full picture and information, there would have been no contact whatsoever,” the spokesperson said.
Associated Press reporters from around the world contributed to this story.
FILE - Documents that were included in the U.S. Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files are photographed Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick, File)
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick listens during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
FILE - New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch arrives for NFL owners meetings, in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
FILE - Britain’s Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, looks round as he leaves after attending the Easter Matins Service at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, England, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)
