CHICAGO, Ill. — UC Davis baseball alum Tanner Murray made his Major League Baseball debut Sunday, going 0-for-2 at shortstop as the Chicago White Sox closed out a three-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays with a 3-0 victory at Rate Field.
Murray, recalled from Triple-A Charlotte prior to the series finale, made his presence felt defensively in the third inning, ranging to his left to retire the final out of a bases-loaded jam and preserve the shutout.
The 26-year-old was acquired from Tampa Bay on Nov. 18, 2025, and posted a .304/.467/.609 slash line with two home runs and seven RBI over six games with the Charlotte Knights to open the season — including a two-homer, five-RBI performance on Opening Day.
Murray, a 6-foot-1, 210-pound infielder, enters the majors with a .275/.331/.437 career slash line over 419 minor league games spanning six seasons in the Rays and White Sox organizations. He was originally selected by Tampa Bay in the fourth round of the 2020 First-Year Player Draft.
As an Aggie freshman in 2018, he hit .333 while being named the Big West Conference Freshman Field Player of the Year. Murray also earned All-Big West Second Team honors, and was a Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American selection.
Murray carried that momentum into his sophomore campaign, batting .364 — fourth in the Big West — across all 49 of UC Davis' games while posting a .503 slugging percentage and earning All-Big West First Team honors.
In 2020, Murray hit .310 with a .535 slugging percentage through 16 games before the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time of the shutdown, he ranked second in the Big West with seven doubles and was tied for the conference lead with three triples, while striking out just four times in 71 at-bats — the fewest of any Big West hitter batting at least .300.
ABOUT UC DAVIS ATHLETICS:
UC Davis, ranked No. 2 among public universities by the Wall Street Journal in the value of a college degree, is home to 40,000 undergraduate students and 12,000 employees. Ranked top in the United States in agriculture and forestry as well as No. 1 in veterinary medicine, UC Davis is located in a true California college town nestled between world-class destinations such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Napa Valley and Lake Tahoe. Over 650 Aggie student-athletes compete in 25 Division I varsity sports, with 16 sports transitioning to the Mountain West Conference beginning in 2026–27.
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https://ucdavisaggies.com/.
