Carolina’s Bullpen Weapon: The Rise of Walker McDuffie

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — If there is one thing that has defined Walker McDuffie’s college career, it’s his slider. Boomerang, old school, ghostly, fluid—all words that can be used to describe the North Carolina hurler’s devastating off-speed offering. 

If he were a chef, this would be his Michelin-starred signature dish.

It hasn’t been a long Tar Heel career, but it’s been eventful. This year he was named a second-team freshman All-American by every publication under the sun. He appeared in a team-high 28 games and became the first UNC true freshman to earn more than one save since Trent Thornton in 2013.

He picked up his first victory in his debut outing against Texas Tech after five strikeouts and 3.2 innings. Just eight days later, he logged his first save against East Carolina.     

McDuffie’s “Hail to the King” walkout song became a death march to the opposition. 

But the slider was not tricked out in UNC’s pitching lab or by high-level travel-ball coaches. It had humble beginnings.

He’s had the exact grip since he was six. 

“We were at the lake, and my uncle just showed me this grip,” McDuffie said. “That’s literally the one I’ve used my whole life.”

McDuffie’s grandfather introduced him to baseball. The eldest of the McDuffie clan coached his grandkids, all the way down to one of the youngest, the little Walker. He was always the smallest kid on the team. At six or seven, he was playing with 10-year-olds, but he had his slider.

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Family is a big reason that McDuffie wears Carolina Blue. The sophomore hails from Broadway, N.C.—head coach Scott Forbes jokingly tries to throw him into the Sanford group—just 58 minutes away from Chapel Hill. 

Lee County has turned into a breeding ground for arm talent. RHP Thomas Harrington made his debut with the East Carolina Pirates this year; Dillon Maples threw five years for the Cubs; and Luke Craig, out of UNCW, is in the Diamondbacks system. They all hail from a county of just 68,000—for reference, that would be around double the UNC student population. 

But it wasn’t always pitching for McDuffie; it was baseball, sure, but he always wanted to be a shortstop. An ACL tear and the realization that he would not be on a college lineup card at the six-spot propelled McDuffie to bring out his slider and stick to the mound full-time. 

It’s paid off. 

Rob Wooten, a UNC baseball alum, coached McDuffie’s travel ball team, C35, and made sure that McDuffie was at UNC’s campus in high school. Wooten and Lee County High School head coach Dalton Hardee contacted pitching coach Bryant Gaines.

After a camp in November 2022, the undersized, 160-pound McDuffie got the offer he’d been yearning for. 

“UNC was literally the only school I wanted to go to, even if it was my 30th offer,” McDuffie said. “I would still have waited.”

The Tar Heel coaches saw McDuffie’s intangibles, his wicked slider, and his potential. Forbes looks for low heartbeats and the ability to perform no matter the situation. 

McDuffie had both in spades. 

“He’s definitely got it,” Forbes said after the Wake Forest series in April.

Four words that the head coach said repeatedly about his freshman phenom.

Another repeated phrase: “Walker McDuffie was outstanding,”. 

The Carolina-loving kid growing up became the go-to in high-leverage situations. It wasn’t all perfect, but in baseball, perfect is a threshold constantly chased, and once it’s achieved, it disappears as quickly as it came. Baseball is all about the next pitch, as is No. 40.

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If anything, while McDuffie’s heart rate is slow, his pitch velocity is not. He doesn’t flash insane heat, but he makes his presence known, striking out 72 batters in 55 1/3 innings. 

He looks unassuming, running out of the pen in his Ray-Ban Wayfarers, the oddball air enhanced by his heavy metal Avenged Sevenfold anthem. But then he whips out his wicked slider and brings out his wild side—even letting the emotion slip in a post-strikeout yell or two.

With last year’s success banked, he’s nowhere near satisfied. 

Once he came to UNC, he dove into pitch setup and sequencing his arsenal. He’s become accustomed to the art of pitching, not just the physical exertion. Even though he’s had the same slider grip since single digits, he’s still figuring out the wily pitch, and he’s only looking to increase that ability.

“It’s the whole slider deal,” he said. “When to throw what type of slider depending on the count and situation.” 

Walker McDuffie with multiple types of sliders is a dangerous man. 

In the fall leading up to his sophomore season, his coaches took away his ole reliable. He was cut off from throwing the breaking ball until the exhibition game against Walters State.

It was frustrating, but McDuffie knows it’s in the tune of improvement. The coaching staff wanted his fastball command to improve, and it did. They wanted his changeup to evolve, and it did. 

“So [the fastball] has been a success,” Forbes told Inside Carolina. “He’s worked really hard at that. He’s got to continue to work. He’s in better shape. He’s more durable. I do think he could be a starter, but if he ends up being a reliever, he’s also going to pitch more than he did last year, which is good for us.”

There is no ruling out what role McDuffie will take on this coming season, but no matter when he appears in the game, he will be a game-changer. 

Fittingly, at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in the eighth inning of a tie game, with the winning run on second, the familiar chords of “Hail to the King” thrummed through the chilly October night. Who other than No. 40 was running out to take the rock and shutdown the game to give the Tar Heels a chance at bragging rights over their rivals from Raleigh? No one.

McDuffie picked up where he had left off last season, striking out two, walking one, and allowing no hits while nabbing the win. 

As fun as exhibition games at the DBAP are, McDuffie can’t wait to get back to work in Boshamer Stadium.

The stadium, where little McDuffie grew up coming with his father and grandfather. He sat in the stands wearing his glasses, beaming, watching the North Carolina arm barn work. But now, he’s the arm on the Boshamer mound. 

His family is still in the stands. And alongside them, fans sporting pairs of McDuffie glasses, pulling for No. 40 and watching that wicked slider go to work.