Once the 2026 season got started, it was abundantly clear that Chicago White Sox rookie Munetaka Murakami was becoming a favorite among card collectors extremely quickly. The market for his cards was crazy early on and only got crazier as he was piling up the home runs for a surprisingly good White Sox team. Unfortunately, a moderate hamstring injury derailed Murakami's rookie season, and most would have expected that the market for his cards would dip.
In fact, most players' markets take a hit when they are on the injured list, with the level of the dip usually proportional to the severity of their injury (as well as their track record). If you want to see a market plummet, watch what happens when a young pitcher has Tommy John surgery. Hell, even Roman Anthony, one of the chase rookies this year, has seen his cards dive while he is on the injured list.
Well, we are three plus weeks into Murakami's IL stint, and there have been some changes in his card market. However, what is particularly curious is that those changes may not be as severe as you would think.
Collectors are treating Munetaka Murakami's injury with a surprising amount of patience
As is often the case, the story with Murakami's cards is different at different price points. It is also important to remember that Murakami's rookie cards haven't actually been around very often yet, nor is there a substantial population of them. The facts could change once both of these factors change, but it is still pretty interesting to see just how patient collectors are being with Murakami's cards. For example, the mojo parallel of his rookie card from 2026 Bowman mega boxes was selling at around $30 near release, but has since dipped to around $13 on June 22. Some of that is injury related, but there are also just a lot more of those cards available as a retail product exclusive of a flagship product.
Where things get a little weird is with the top end of the market. In May 2026, redemptions for Murakami's base chrome rookie auto from 2026 Bowman Baseball were selling for around $1,048 a piece, give or take. Even ignoring the injury concerns for a moment, we would expect a dip just from a supply perspective. Well, Murakami's base autos have technically dipped, but only to $954 towards the end of June. It is clear that Murakami's hamstring injury has done little to dampen the excitement for his cards at those prices.
This is even more pronounced with the really rare stuff. One of the most desirable inserts period in collecting are the Anime SSP inserts in Bowman products each year, and Murakami's were selling for a whopping $2,358 upon release. What is even crazier is that even though he has been on the shelf for weeks now and a lot of Bowman has been opened, the price of his Animes has actually gone UP to $2,412.
Ultimately, this comes down to the type of demand that Murakami drives, combined with the nature of his injury. Hamstring injuries are almost never damning, and his prognosis sounds very good, so many collectors are just playing the waiting game until he is back hitting homers again. It is also true that Japanese players garner uniquely strong interest from Japan, which is not a market that is universal across the league. Still, it is pretty wild to see what Murakami's cards are going for right now. One cannot help but wonder what they would be if he were actually playing.
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