Kyler Murray found his way to an MLB field after all
Despite turning away from millions in MLB bonus money for even more millions in NFL contract money, Kyler Murray’s days on a baseball diamond aren’t completely over.
Murray, along with Arizona Coyotes first-round draft pick Victor Soderstrom, threw out the first pitch at Tuesday’s Arizona Diamondbacks game, a visual that might have been pretty rough for Oakland Athletics fans.
Two of Arizona's newest additions to the #AllAZ fam.
Thanks for throwing out the first pitch tonight, @K1 and Victor Soderstrom. 😃 pic.twitter.com/1dm5ek8sgh— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) June 26, 2019
Murray famously walked away from nearly $5 million as an Athletics prospect to try his hand at football, a decision that was rewarded handsomely when he was picked first overall and signed a $35.2 million contract with the Arizona Cardinals.
The 21-year-old hit .296/.398/.556 with 10 homers and 10 steals in 51 games for Oklahoma baseball during his redshirt sophomore season. He was considered a top athlete in the outfield with intriguing potential at the plate and, ahem, signability concerns due to his love for football.
That decision was an abject disaster for the A’s, who lost their ninth overall pick in the 2018 MLB draft and received no compensation because he had already signed a contract with the team.
The idea was that Murray would play out the rest of his football career at Oklahoma, then join the A’s, but the team clearly wasn’t ready for Murray to win the Heisman Trophy and have his football stock skyrocket.
And now, Murray is out throwing pitches for other teams. Tough break.
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