This story was excerpted from Alex Stumpf’s Pirates Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
BRADENTON, Fla. -- Murf Gray’s baseball dreams started roughly 16 years before he was drafted by the Pirates, when he was 5 years old. While watching college baseball on television, he was struck by Oregon’s jerseys and loved the look. So much so that he went up to his mom, Monet, to tell her some big news.
“I’m going to play for the Oregon Ducks,” Gray recalled telling her. “You see those jerseys? One day, I’m going to be wearing that jersey. I’m going to college. I’m playing college baseball.”
Gray did grow up to play college ball, but at Fresno State (with their snazzy jerseys) instead of Oregon. He excelled there too, being rated as the school’s top Draft prospect since Aaron Judge in 2013.
“I would always get the comparison, but you can’t really take that and run,” Gray said with a smile at Pirate City. “You’ve got to stay humble, you’ve got to put in the work.”
The Pirates are confident he’s going to do just that, which is why they selected him with their Competitive Balance Round B pick -- a pick at the end of the second round and 73rd overall -- last month. A lot has changed since then. At the time, the Pirates had Ke’Bryan Hayes at third base with a long-term deal in place, but Hayes was dealt to the Reds on July 30, putting the future of the position in flux.
Gray will need some time to develop in the Minors before he can be in that hot-corner mix, but he has the potential to be the power-hitting corner infielder the organization has been without for years. Gray has the arm to stick at the hot corner, and he hit 18 home runs and 22 doubles this past season for Fresno State.
Gray has already flashed some of that pop at Pirate City. During a live batting practice on the backfields Friday afternoon, Gray lined a ball into the gap that had an exit velocity of 107 mph. It may not have been in a game environment, but it was with a wooden bat and after barely seeing competitive live pitching since the college season.
The Pirates feel there is more to unlock, too. Amateur scouting director Justin Horowitz mentioned on the day Gray was drafted that optimizing his contact points will be part of that equation. It’s going to take work, but Gray doesn’t back down from that. He’s learned to love the routines behind the scenes and developing that power stroke.
“I feel like it’s homegrown,” Gray said about his swing. “Working things out, figuring out what works for me, and I’m one of those guys that likes to be on the attack, being aggressive. I feel like I’ve always kept that characteristic, but I’ve been able to grow my swing itself and become more of a patient hitter and using some of that power that I have.”
Growing up, Gray had a couple of benchmark players to chase: his older brothers Darien and Jalen, who played in high school. He also had his best friend as a rock: his mom.
Monet is the mother of five boys and spent 19 years as a lunchlady at Madera South High School in Madera, Calif. It was there that Murf realized she actually had a lot more than five children, because his classmates would call her their mom, too, since she looked out for the students and hooked them up if they didn’t have lunch money.
“She’s always there with us, supporting us, helping us,” Gray said. “She’s one of us. She’s our world.”
When Murf was 12, Monet had a cardiac episode when he was watching television. She’s fine now, but the health scare taught him that he can overcome adversity. He carried that drive through college, and on Draft day, he got to celebrate with her.
“It was tears, waterworks,” Gray said. “It was like the world shifted another way. We were able to see the bigger picture in everything. To see that God had a plan from the start. To see that he kept my mom here for a reason, to see that day.”
The job’s not done, though. There’s still the gauntlet of the Minors to reach the Majors. He’s not backing down from that, and he’s looking forward to showing Pirates fans the type of person they brought into the organization.
“I’m going to work hard,” Gray said. “I’m going to put in the work. I’m going to show up every day to be there, and even more than that, I’m going to be there for the city itself. I’m going to be more than just a baseball player for the city. I’m going to stay after, sign those autographs.
“I’m going to continue to work hard and show the fans that they’ve got somebody loyal who would love to stay in Pittsburgh. Someone who is going to work hard and know what that name represents, Pittsburgh Pirates. Every time I throw that jersey on, you know he’s going to work.”