Rule 5 Draft Prospect Profile: Shea Murray
When he first entered the Pirates Minor League system, Shea Murray was already put behind the eight-ball. He suffered an injury that forced him to miss the entire 2017 season and pushed his development back a full year. Now, with the suspension of the 2020 Minor League season, the Pirates had another year of delay with Murray and his development. While his results haven't been the best Murray has gone quickly through the Minor League system, pitching as high as Double-A Altoona during the 2019 season. Murray has had a ton of obstacles to clear in his career, and he is looking to make all that hard work pay off with a career at PNC Park.
However, in his first year of eligibility for the Rule 5 Draft, he may have the ability to continue his development with another organization. He is a big pitcher standing at 6'6 and weighing 240 pounds and he has the ability to throw the ball as high as 99 miles per hour. However, he has very little experience on the mound with a total of 60.1 innings of work between pro ball and the collegiate ranks, 48.1 of those innings have come in the Pirates system. His velocity may be an enticing enough piece for another team that needs pitching depth, but the Pirates are hoping he can continue to develop in their system.
Little Experience, Big Talent
Murray's story is much different than many professional pitchers in the game today. He didn't throw his first pitch until he was 18-years old and played mostly in the outfield. However, when he was looking for a place to play college ball, Ohio State put a radar gun on him and it read 92 miles per hour. He began pitching at Ohio State, but his control was an issue. In his first five collegiate games, he pitched a combined 2.2 inning and had a 30.38 ERA walking six batters and striking out one. As his collegiate career went on, his strikeout rate got better, but his control was an issue and he pitched just 13.1 innings with Ohio State. He wasn't drafted after his senior year, but scouts kept asking about his arm.
He worked all year leading up to the 2017 MLB Draft and organized a showcase at Ohio State for 8-10 Major League scouts. He consistently hit between 97 and 99 miles per hour throughout the day and began getting interest from around the league. The Pittsburgh Pirates were the ones who capitalized drafting him in the 18th round of the 2017 MLB Draft. He signed, but couldn't get started right away as he found out he had a torn UCL in his right elbow. It required surgery and Murray would sit out the entire 2017 season. When he returned in 2018, the Pirates finally gave him his professional start and assigned him to the West Virginia Black Bears.
His professional debut did not go as he planned as he faced three batters and walked all three of them before being pulled. His control issues would haunt him all season as he posted a 7.36 ERA in 10 games for the Black Bears. In 7.1 innings of work he only allowed three hits and struck out just about a batter per inning. However, he walked a total of 16 batters and had to deal with a lot of stress on the base paths. However, as the season went on, his control got better and his best stretch came in his final three appearances. He pitched three innings of work while walking two batters and striking out three. He retired the final four batters he faced of the season and gave himself a much-needed confidence boost heading into the off-season.
He would move to full-season ball in 2019 and began his acceleration through the Pirates system. He started with the Greensboro Grasshoppers and already showed great improvement from the year before. He worked seven innings of work over the first month of the season and had a 2.57 ERA while walking five and striking out 10. He was showing better command than he had in the past and ended up advancing to Advanced-A Bradenton a month into the season. He spent most of the season with the Marauders and went 1-0 with a 4.86 ERA in 33.1 innings of work. He continued to miss bats, allowing just 23 hits, but he was still walking more batters than you like to see with a walk rate of 16.6%. Murray did appear in one game at the Double-A level, but things didn't go well as he gave up five hits and six earned runs in 0.1 innings of work.
Velocity is Valuable
Even though Murray has a lot of work to do in terms of his control, his velocity could make him an enticing option to another team. With him being Rule 5 Draft eligible for the first time, he is one of the pieces the Pirates might lose in the Minor League portion of the Rule 5 Draft. A fastball in the upper nineties is hard for any hitter to catch up to, and if Murray can get his pitches under control, he has a chance to be something special in the Major Leagues. He just needs more time and experience on the mound to gain that necessary control. Unfortunately, the 2020 season did not allow him to continue his progress, but instead, he had to work at home to improve.
As far as his 2021 projection, look for the Pirates to try to advance Murray to Double-A Altoona to start the year. Entering his age 27 season, Murray is one of the older prospects in the Pirates system and he has got to develop fast. It will all depend on his control as to how high he goes, and Double-A is his next big step to conquer. It is considered the level where the contenders are separated from the MLB pretenders and for Murray it is time to show that even though he is inexperienced on the mound, he can use his high-velocity stuff to get outs on a consistent basis.
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