Murray attended Locke High School in Los Angeles, California, where he batted .500 as a senior and was a teammate of Ozzie Smith.

Eddie Murray was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the 3rd round of the 1973 amateur draft and had several successful seasons in the minor leagues. He debuted at the major league level on April 7, 1977 and played in 160 games for the Orioles in his first season. He won the American League Rookie of the Year award by batting .283, hitting 27 home runs and contributing 88 RBI.

Murray did not suffer the sophomore jinx, instead building on his successes. With the Orioles from 1977 until 1988, Murray averaged 28 home runs and 99 RBI and was a perennial candidate for the MVP award, twice finishing second in the voting. The Orioles also appeared in the post-season twice, in 1979 and 1983, and won the World Series in 1983. Murray's close knit friendship with fellow Oriole Cal Ripken Jr. was highly publicized in Baltimore at the time.

Murray was traded on December 4, 1988 to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Juan Bell, Brian Holton and Ken Howell and had three successful seasons with the Dodgers, knocking in 88, 95 and 96 runs.

Prior to the 1992 season, Murray signed a two-year deal with the New York Mets, for whom he played well despite playing for one of the worst teams in the major leagues. In 1993 he again drove in 100 runs, this time for the final time in his career.

From 1994 to 1997, Murray played for several teams, including the Cleveland Indians (1994-96), the Baltimore Orioles(1996), the Anaheim Angels (1997) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (1997). Although he no longer possessed the presence at the plate he had had in the 1980s, he was a valued and still consistent contributor for these teams. On September 6, 1996, he hit his 500th career home run -- fittingly, the home run came as a member of the Orioles, and also came exactly one year to the day that Ripken had broken Lou Gehrig's streak of 2,130 consecutive games played. He retired after the 1997 season with 504 home runs, ranking him second among switch-hitters behind Mickey Mantle's 536.