The Athletics selected Murdock with the fourth pick in the Rule 5 draft Wednesday, JJ Cooper of Baseball America reports.
A 26-year-old righty reliever from the Royals organization, Murdock has logged groundball rates over 55 percent at his three most recent stops thanks to a quality sinker. He posted a 3.76 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 46:26 K:BB and 62.1 percent groundball rate in 38.1 innings at Triple-A last season. Murdock should work in low-leverage situations as a rookie and will need to remain in the big leagues all season, otherwise the A's would need to return him to the Royals.