Kyler Murray's early performance in the NFL makes his first overall selection by the Cardinals in 2019 look like a home run. It also makes it easy to forget that Murray could have been a professional baseball star, too.
Only one player has ever been taken in the first round of both the MLB Draft and the NFL Draft: That's right, Murray. His rights are still owned by the Oakland Athletics if he ever decided to go for the two-sport route like Bo Jackson or Deion Sanders. For now, Murray is one of the NFL's most dynamic young quarterbacks.
But in case you were wondering just how good Murray was or could've been at baseball, here's a look back at the things we do know about Kyler Murray, the baseball player.
MORE: Kyler Murray might be the greatest Texas HS football player ever
Kyler Murray high school baseball stats
Murray has two seasons of high school baseball statistics listed on MaxPreps. As a sophomore at Allen (TX) High School, he hit .302 with five doubles, two triples, two home runs and 20 stolen bases. Then as a senior, Murray hit .286 with a double, two triples and a home run. Although MaxPreps doesn't list Murray's junior year stats, a story in The Undefeated said that was his best season, as he hit nine home runs as a junior.
There isn't a lot else to go on when it comes to Murray's high school baseball career. He wasn't drafted out of high school, but that likely had to do with signability concerns since Murray wanted to go play two sports in college. Perfect Game, a baseball recruiting service, ranked Murray as the No. 68 prospect nationally in his high school class.
Murray also became the first player ever named an Under Armour All-American in both baseball and football. Scouts were already looking into Murray during his high school career, according to Bleacher Report, but Murray chose to go to college at Texas A&M and play two sports instead.
Kyler Murray college baseball career
Murray didn't play at Texas A&M before transferring to Oklahoma. With the Sooners, he spent two seasons on the baseball team.
In the first, Murray struggled. He batted .122 and struggled with playing the outfield, according to The Undefeated.
“My first year playing baseball at OU, you would have thought I was garbage,” Murray said to The Undefeated.
Murray's biggest hurdle was time management. The football and baseball teams at OU had to work together so that Murray could essentially be in two places at once. Oklahoma baseball coach Skip Johnson told The Undefeated that Murray practiced with the baseball team less than 10 times. He'd just show up and, in his redshirt sophomore year, play well.
Everything clicked for Murray in that second year of college baseball: A .296 average, 10 home runs, 10 stolen bases. If his talent had temporarily fallen off the radar of MLB clubs, it came back while he was putting up those numbers despite limited practice reps. Already having displayed some football chops in 2017 in a part-time role, Murray's 2018 baseball season set the stage for his Heisman Trophy fall.
M3 | Kyler Murray gets all of it for his 10th home run of the season.
— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) May 18, 2018
OU 5, Kansas 0 pic.twitter.com/nUKEJcFLRF
Kyler Murray and the Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics chose Murray with the ninth-overall selection in the 2018 MLB Draft. He'd eventually become the first player chosen in the first round of both the MLB and NFL Drafts. The A's knew Murray wouldn't be an easy sign, and so to appease him, they let him play that final season as quarterback at OU, when he won his Heisman.
Oakland originally signed Murray to a contract with a $4.9-million signing bonus, but as it looked more and more like Murray would choose football, the reported offering to keep Murray in baseball reached $14 million. It wasn't enough, though. Murray entered the NFL Draft, was the No. 1 pick by the Arizona Cardinals and has focused his energies on the NFL.
Murray's contract with the Cardinals as the first overall pick is due to pay him about $35 million. If he'd gone the baseball route, he very well could still be in the minor leagues (at least in a normal year, with the minor league season not taking place in 2020). And Patrick Mahomes has proven that quarterback money might even be more enticing than anything outside of Mike Trout-level money.
If Murray ever wanted to play baseball, it'd be for Oakland (barring a trade): The A's still own his rights from his original draft selection. Murray himself spoke on the possibility of playing two sports in January, and for those longing for the days of Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders, Murray didn't quite slam the door shut.
“I don’t understand why in sports they try to marginalize it," Murray said. "They try to make you pick one and I get it, but we’ll see. I think it would be fun. Right now, though, I’m just focused on football.”