As the first day of the NFL’s free agent frenzy ended with former Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray still in the wind, a debate-show topic flickered to life: What if Kyler went back to baseball? Sure, he’ll almost surely sign with the Vikings, Jets or some other QB-needy organization, but … what if? Could Murray pull an Involuntary Jordan and jump from his chosen sport to his second one?
Murray established himself as a legitimate two-sport prospect coming out of high school. After one full season of baseball at Oklahoma, the Athletics thought highly enough of his prospects to select him at ninth overall in the 2018 MLB draft.
“He had power, speed, bat speed, defensive ability that gave you the glimpse of what he could be,” one longtime baseball scout told Yahoo Sports. “If it all came together, the impact — he had All-Star-type of potential.”
In the 51 games of his 2018 season at Oklahoma, Murray averaged .296 with 10 home runs, a .398 on-base percentage and a .556 slugging percentage. Scouts projected him as a center fielder, with the speed to chase down balls and the arm to whip the ball back into the infield on a rope. (Baseball bonus: opposing ballplayers can’t intercept relay throws.)
Murray’s athleticism was on a big-league track in college, and even now, he could play himself into professional-level performance within a season or so. The exception — and it’s a big one — is contact. Hitting the baseball is the toughest act in sports, requiring a consistent repetition that Murray simply didn’t have because he bounced back and forth between the gridiron and the diamond.
The then-Oakland A’s selected Kyler Murray with the ninth overall pick in the 2018 draft. (Michael Zagaris/Oakland Athletics/Getty Images)
(Michael Zagaris via Getty Images)
“Being able to hit the ball is the most important thing from the scouting side, and the most uncertain with him,” the scout said. “That’s the hardest thing to project. He was just behind on exposure, pure at-bats, things of that nature.”
Still, the scout believes that had Murray dedicated himself to baseball, he could have figured out hitting in relatively short order.
“Somebody that’s able to play NFL quarterback is probably able to figure out a lot of things,” the scout said. “Hitting a baseball is a very challenging thing, but I also assume reading a defense is challenging.”
Scouts knew from the jump that Murray favored football over baseball, not least because football offered more immediate financial rewards. The Athletics gave him a signing bonus of $4.66 million … but scouts estimate he would have had to work his way upward for around six years, with no guarantees, to sign a massive baseball contract. The Cardinals, by contrast, signed Murray to a fully-guaranteed $35 million rookie deal. Not much of a choice there.
When the A’s signed Murray to that initial deal, Billy Beane, then the A’s VP of baseball operations, termed him “one of the most dynamic athletes that we’ve selected since I’ve been here.” High praise from the guy who inspired Moneyball.
Even though Murray returned most of the signing bonus, the A’s still hold his rights, and the door to the clubhouse remains open. “Kyler is an elite NFL quarterback and I’m sure there are plenty of opportunities for him to continue his football career,” Athletics GM David Forst told MLB.com last week. “That said, he and his baseball representatives know that we’re always open to him exploring a return to baseball with the A’s if that time ever comes.”
Murray isn’t the only NFL standout who had a real future in baseball if he’d wanted it. Scouts to this day wonder about how high the Eagles’ A.J. Brown could have risen; some projected him to have even more talent at the plate than Murray. Brown signed with the Padres out of high school and worked out with the team while in college at Ole Miss, but obviously opted to stick with football.
Giants quarterback Jameis Winston had an even clearer path to the pros. As a closer for Florida State, Winston threw heat that could have had him in the majors in a hurry. The Rangers selected him in the 2012 MLB draft, but Winston opted not to sign so that he could continue pitching for the Seminoles … and, along the way, win both a Heisman and a national championship, too.
For old-school fans of two-sport stars like Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders, the challenges that face their potential heirs are a bit disappointing. Each sport requires such dedication, such specialization and such a time commitment that two-sport dabbling is effectively impossible now. But hey, if the Jets end up being Murray’s only option … never say never, right?
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