South Korean infielder Sung-mun Song and the San Diego Padres finalized a $15 million, four-year contract on Sunday.

Song will receive a $1 million signing bonus in two equal installments, in 30 days and on Jan. 15, 2027, and salaries of $2.5 million next year, $3 million in 2027 and $3.5 million in 2028.

Song’s deal includes a $4 million player option for 2029 and a $7 million mutual option for 2030 with a $1 million buyout.

If Song wins a Rookie of the Year award, his salary the following season would escalate by $1 million. If he finishes among the top five in MVP voting, his salary in all remaining years of the contract would increase by $1 million each.

He will be a free agent at the end of the contract, and the team will pay for an interpreter and round trip airline tickets from South Korea.

Song hit .315 with a career-high 26 homers and 90 RBIs this year for South Korea’s Kiwoom Heroes. Primarily a third baseman, the 29-year-old left-handed hitter has a .284 average with 80 homers and 454 RBIs in nine seasons with Nexen (2015, 2017-19) and Kiwoom (2021-25).

Under MLB’s posting agreement with the Korean Baseball Organization League, the Padres will pay the Heroes a $3 million posting fee. San Diego would owe a supplemental fee of 15% of any escalators triggered.

Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami is joining the Chicago White Sox, landing the home run record-setter in Nippon Professional Baseball with a rebuilding team making its first free agent splash in years.

The White Sox announced Murakami’s addition Sunday, with sources telling ESPN the sides agreed on a two-year, $34 million contract.

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 he now 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 season) and his 72.6% in-zone contact rate (would have been second lowest in MLB this year) illustrate the potential downside in his offensive game. But San Francisco Giants slugger Rafael Devers remains productive with a high whiff rate, and Chicago saw the opportunity to bring in the sort of talent it typically does not have access to with a low payroll and a prospect-hoarding mentality.

Murakami’s 90th-percentile exit velocity would have been fifth in MLB, his maximum exit velocity 12th and his hard-hit rate first. For a White Sox team two years removed from the most losses in MLB history, adding Murakami to a lineup that includes promising young hitters in shortstop Colson Montgomery, catchers Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero, infielder Miguel Vargas, and second baseman Chase Meidroth brings even more hope after winning the draft lottery at the winter meetings.

The overwhelming favorite to go No. 1 in the July draft is UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky, giving the White Sox a potential abundance of young infielders in the coming years.

Whether Murakami is manning first or third, he will be in the middle of a White Sox lineup in desperate need of power. With 165 home runs last season, the White Sox finished 14th of 15 American League teams, just ahead of the Kansas City Royals. In his eight seasons with the Swallows following his debut as an 18-year-old, Murakami hit .270/.394/.557 with a walk rate of greater than 16% and a strikeout rate nearing 26%.

Highlight reels of his home runs have long circulated on the internet in anticipation of Murakami’s arrival in MLB. He played a vital role in Japan’s victory in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, hammering a game-winning two-run double in the ninth inning of a semifinal win against Mexico.

Chicago saw that version of Murakami and will add him to perhaps the most uniquely constructed roster in baseball, with five players signed — Murakami, Luis Robert Jr. ($20 million), Andrew Benintendi ($17.1 million), Anthony Kay ($5 million) and Derek Hill ($900,000) — none eligible for arbitration and the remainder making around the major league minimum.

Murakami’s deal will cost the White Sox $40.575 million in total, with the Swallows receiving a $6.575 million posting fee to transfer him to Chicago.

ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel contributed to this report.

The Boston Red Sox acquired first baseman Willson Contreras in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday, the second big deal between the teams this winter as the Cardinals rebuild and the Red Sox aim to stay competitive in the cutthroat American League East division, sources told ESPN.

Contreras, 33, has been one of the steadiest right-handed hitters in baseball since his debut and will bring his well-above-average glove to a position Boston had spent the offseason trying to fill. The Red Sox will receive $8 million to cover the remaining $42.5 million on the three-time All-Star’s contract and sent right-hander Hunter Dobbins and right-handed pitching prospects Yhoiker Fajardo and Blake Aita to the Cardinals, sources said.

While the Cardinals were not intent on trading Contreras this winter, the opportunity to land a major league-ready starter in Dobbins helped facilitate a deal that came after Sonny Gray waived his no-trade clause to go from St. Louis to Boston in late November. Contreras likewise waived his no-trade clause after receiving an extra million dollars guaranteed through a renegotiation of his contract, sources said.

The amended contract will pay Contreras $18 million in 2026 and $17 million in 2027 with a $20 million option in 2028 that now includes a $7.5 million buyout. (Previously, the deal paid him $18 million in ’26, $18.5 million in ’27 with a $17.5 million option and a $5 million buyout.) Boston had sought a right-handed bat to play first base and fell short in the bidding for free agent first baseman Pete Alonso, who signed with division rival Baltimore.

Though Contreras doesn’t possess the power of Alonso, he has been a tremendously steady hitter since debuting at catcher for the Chicago Cubs in 2016. Over his 10-year career, Contreras has hit .258/.352/.459, and last year, after shifting full-time to first base, he hit .257/.344/.447 with 20 home runs and 80 RBIs.

To get Contreras, the Red Sox dipped into their deep well of starting pitching, sending the 26-year-old Dobbins, who figures to have a spot in St. Louis’ rotation when he returns from a July ACL tear that ended his debut season. Prior to the injury, sustained when covering first base, Dobbins went 4-1 with a 4.13 ERA over 13 outings, allowing just six home runs in 61 innings and striking out 45 against 17 walks.

The 19-year-old Fajardo, who had been traded to the Red Sox a year ago to the day, posted a 2.25 ERA over 72 innings between the Florida Complex League and Low-A Salem this year. A $400,000 signing out of Venezuela, he runs his fastball up to 97 mph and complements it with a changeup and slider.

Aita, 22, was a sixth-round pick out of Kennesaw State in 2024 and finished this year at High-A. Featuring a mid-90s fastball, Aita struck out 99 and walked 30 in 115.1 innings with a 3.98 ERA over two levels.

ESPN’s Jesse Rogers contributed to this report.