{"id":14375,"date":"2025-05-09T22:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T22:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/14375\/"},"modified":"2025-05-09T22:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T22:05:08","slug":"as-designate-noah-murdock-for-assignment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/14375\/","title":{"rendered":"A’s Designate Noah Murdock For Assignment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The A\u2019s designated Rule 5 pick\u00a0Noah Murdock<\/a> for assignment, relays<\/a> Mart\u00edn Gallegos of MLB.com. Righty\u00a0Elvis Alvarado<\/a> was recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas to take his spot in the bullpen. Alvarado is already on the 40-man roster, so the move drops their count to 39.<\/p>\n

Murdock, 26, was the fourth player selected in last winter\u2019s Rule 5 draft. (The A\u2019s had the fifth pick, but Colorado passed at #2.) The A\u2019s took the reliever out of the Kansas City farm system. Murdock divided his 2024 season between Double-A Northwest Arkansas and Triple-A Omaha. He worked to a 2.22 earned run average over 24 1\/3 innings at the former level. Murdock posted a 3.76 ERA through 38 1\/3 frames in Triple-A. He combined for a 27% strikeout rate and a huge 59.7% ground-ball percentage, though that came with an alarming 15.4% walk rate.<\/p>\n

The 6\u20198\u2033 righty broke camp and has made his first 14 big league appearances. They haven\u2019t gone well, as he\u2019s been blitzed for 25 runs across 17 1\/3 innings. The free passes have remained far too problematic. Murdock has walked 20 batters and hit two more among the 98 he has faced. The grounder rates that have been his calling card in the minors haven\u2019t been there against big league competition. Murdock posted a 42.6% ground-ball percentage and a 21.4% strikeout rate \u2014 both decent numbers but not nearly enough to offset the free passes.<\/p>\n

Teams must keep their Rule 5 picks on the major league roster or injured list for the entire season to gain their long-term contractual rights. The A\u2019s are out to a solid 20-18 start and at the very least look like a fringe Wild Card contender. They decided they could no longer afford to devote a middle relief spot to a pitcher who was struggling to such an extent.<\/p>\n

The A\u2019s will trade Murdock or, much more likely, place him on waivers in the next few days. That\u2019ll give the rest of the league an opportunity to acquire him, though they\u2019d assume the same Rule 5 obligations if they do so. If Murdock clears waivers, the A\u2019s would need to offer him back to the Royals for $50K. (Teams pay the former club $100K when they make a Rule 5 pick.) Kansas City would not need to put him on the 40-man roster and could return him to the minor league ranks, probably back in Omaha.<\/p>\n

Alvarado receives the first major league call of his career. The 26-year-old righty signed a split major league contract with the Pirates at the start of the offseason. He didn\u2019t last the entire winter on Pittsburgh\u2019s 40-man roster, but the A\u2019s claimed him off waivers in January. He\u2019s out to a decent start in Las Vegas, tallying 15 2\/3 frames of eight-run ball in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He has recorded 22 strikeouts against four walks while picking up five saves in 14 appearances. His fastball is averaging a blistering 99 MPH. Alvarado has been prone to walks for most of his career, but he\u2019s a power arm with a track record of missing bats in the minors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The A\u2019s designated Rule 5 pick\u00a0Noah Murdock for assignment, relays Mart\u00edn Gallegos of MLB.com. Righty\u00a0Elvis Alvarado was recalled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,7634,4,7635],"class_list":{"0":"post-14375","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-elvis-alvarado","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-noah-murdock"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114480147685269917","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}