Steele Murdock

IMPROVEMENT AREAS

• Evaluate sustained performance with level and age context
• Review role fit, health, roster status, and organization need

SCOUT REPORT

Murdock headed from the Utah high school ranks to UC San Diego, redshirting his freshman year and then spending his first real season on the mound in 2025 making eight Sunday starts and seven other relief outings, with mixed results. He was a Cape Cod League All-Star last summer, racking up eight saves as a closer for Orelans. He returned to the Tritons' rotation as a redshirt sophomore this spring and has shown glimpses of dominance, creating a buzz by outpitching Santa Barbara's Jackson Flora with an eight-inning, 17-strikeout masterpiece in early April, but then failed to build on that momentum in his next couple of outings. At his best, Murdock is a strong power pitcher who can maintain his stuff deep into starts, one who could pitch with two plus pitches at the next level. In that start against UCSB, he sat 95 mph and missed bats with the pitch, but while he's touched as high as 99 mph, he typically sits around 92-94 and it gets squared up. The slider is typically a legit out pitch, an 84-85 mph breaker that gets a ton of swings-and-misses along with chases. There's a mid-80s changeup in there, but he rarely goes to it, throwing his fastball-breaker almost all of the time. More often than not, Murdock's lack of command (well over five walks per nine in his college career), not to mention relatively low extension and effort in his delivery, leads to thoughts of reliever risk. A team interested in making him just the second Tritons pitcher to go in the top five rounds in over 50 years, joining Astros prospect Ryan Forcucci, could send him out as a starter while remembering just how good he looked coming out of the pen on the Cape.