After six years in Japan, Matt Murton is reportedly coming back home to the Cubs

Cue up the Diddy, because Matt Murton is coming home. After spending the last six seasons with the Hanshin Tigers of the NPB, Murton looks to be returning to his first Major League team: The Cubs. The team has reportedly signed the fiery-haired outfielder on a Minor League deal, bringing him back to the organization where he found his greatest Major League success. 
Of course, the last six seasons have been pretty good to Murton, too. In his first season with the Tigers, Murton smacked 214 base hits, breaking Ichiro Suzuki's then-single season record of 210. 

In all, Murton hit .310/.354/.438 with the Tigers, picking up another batting title in 2014 along the way, and became the fifth-fastest player to reach 1,000 hits in the league. 
There were also plenty of moments like this, when Murton, in amazing striped socks, got to face off against a pre-MLB Yu Darvish:  

Murton's performance was strong enough that he became a celebrity in the Japanese baseball scene. He even got an amazing graphic tee-shirt made for him. 

Matt Murton is going back to the Cubs? Here's an amazing Matt Murton T-Shirt I found when I was in Tokyo: pic.twitter.com/Hv4Y4sPlEL

— Cespedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) February 4, 2016

Now he's coming back to the states, though he no longer has the NPB hits record. That was broken this past year by Shogo Akiyama and his 216 hits.

He'll have a hard time breaking into the Cubs outfield, given how stocked it is with Kyle Schwarber, Jason Heyward and Jorge Soler holding down the starting spots, but teams will always make room for guys who can hit. Though the transition between NPB and the Majors is not always the smoothest, Murton has spent the last six years proving he's big in Japan. Why can't he do the same at home?