Tim Tebow's Baseball Chapter Should Show Why Kyler Murray is Staying Put
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There have been a number of ridiculous athletes that have played in both the NFL and Major League Baseball, and a few have even achieved both feats at the same time. Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson are still talked about with awe today, even with their two-sport greatness occurring primarily 30-plus years ago.
This week the Arizona Cardinals cut quarterback Kyler Murray, who was selected by the A's with the ninth overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft. A's GM David Forst said that they'd be open to Murray exploring a return to baseball with the club.
The overwhelming expectation is that Murray continues to play in the NFL, where his career will be more lucrative, and he could be retired by the time he'd be hitting free agency and his one shot at a payday in MLB.
While that's the expectation, we thought it would be fun to compare Murray to another former QB that turned to pro baseball when his NFL days were behind him in Tim Tebow. After leading the Florida Gators to a national championship in 2008 as the starter, he was selected with the 25th overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos. Murray went first overall to the Cardinals.
Tebow played three total seasons in the NFL before calling it quits after the 2012 season. It took him until 2016, when he was 28, to make his pro ball debut in the Arizona Fall League.
Comparing Murray and Tebow
We're using Tebow as a data point here because Murray is also 28 years old currently, and has been a quarterback in the NFL. Most of the other two-way athletes that have competed in both sports have been running backs or defensive backs. Patrick Mahomes and Russell Wilson were drafted by MLB teams, like Murray, but have largely passed on playing baseball.
Wilson played two short seasons in the minors in 2010 and 2011 in the low minors, batting a combined .229 with a .354 OBP and a .710 OPS in his age 21 and 22 seasons. He then went on to play in the NFL, drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the third round of the 2012 Draft.
One huge difference between Tebow and Murray is that Tebow didn't play baseball in college, so the layoff was a little longer than it would currently be for Murray. That said, Murray has taken way more snaps and way more hits as an NFL quarterback due to the length of his career.
While Tebow struggled mightily in that AFL stint, batting .194 with a .296 OBP and a .538 OPS in 19 games, he did manage to hit fairly well in 2018 with the New York Mets Double-A affiliate. He ended up hitting .273 with a .336 OBP and a .734 OPS. The downside of those numbers is that he was still striking out 34.6% of the time and he had a BABIP of .417, which is extremely high.
His final season in Triple-A in 2019 he hit just .163 and struck out 37% of the time. He never made it to the big leagues.
That all said, Murray was drafted in the first round of the MLB Draft, so there's no denying that he has talent, and his athleticism could be a key cog to moving him quickly up the ranks. The question would be how quickly he could regain his hitting skills on the baseball diamond in order to make a run at the majors.
Baseball has changed a bit since Murray last stepped on a baseball field. Pitchers are throwing harder, analytics are used a whole lot more, and there's now robots calling balls and strikes (when asked).
While seeing Murray play baseball in green and gold would certainly be an interesting sight, it's not one we're likely to see in any sort of a full-time basis. Baseball is had enough when you're playing every day. It's near impossible when you've been out of the mix for eight years.
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Jason has been covering the A’s at various sites for over a decade, and was the original host of the Locked on A’s podcast. He also covers the Stanford Cardinal as they attempt to rebuild numerous programs to prominence.
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