The Athletics were hit with the news today that top 2018 draft choice Kyler Murray intends to pursue a career in the NFL. While that seemed to all but resolve the question of which sport he’d pursue, the Oakland organization may not be ready to concede the matter.
According to a report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription link), the A’s still intend to engage with Murray’s camp as his NFL draft journey begins. As Rosenthal notes, the club still can beat any offer that a football team makes, at least in theory, by dangling a guaranteed MLB contract on top of the MLB draft bonus money that Murray presently stands to sacrifice.
Though the Heisman Trophy winner is now going to turn his full attention to football, his draft prospects remain up in the air. It’s certainly possible Murray will end up being taken lower than some pundits expect. Regardless where he goes, his earnings will be capped by the NFL draft slotting system, so the Oakland org will at least have a chance to submit a final, higher bid.
Realistically, there’s sure to be a limit as to how much cash the A’s will put up to keep Murray off the gridiron. The team clearly values his future, particularly since there’s no compensation for losing him, but Murray is also a long way from being a big league contributor. There’s risk in any prospect, but he’s seen a particularly boom-or-bust player given his relative lack of polish on the diamond.
It’ll certainly be fascinating, for a variety of reasons, to see how high the Oakland organization will ultimately bid for Murray, if it does indeed attempt to woo him back. Perhaps he won’t even entertain another baseball offer if he receives a good enough opportunity with the right NFL franchise. For the time being, there’s still some uncertainty to the matter — at least, that is, from the A’s perspective.
He is no russel Wilson. No way.
Russell Wilson by no means was this highly regarded coming into the draft.
He was not. However he can thank Russell for paving the way for a guy like that to get a legitimate chance. Unfortunately as good as a prospect as Murray is now had he came out when Wilson did I’m not sure he’d have even been considered in the first round.
You do realize there were football/baseball combo players a long time before Russell Wilson? Lol
I’m pretty sure Murray’s height is the biggest reason he’s getting Wilson comps in this thread.
Russ Wilson playing baseball has nothing to do with my comment. It was the fact that he’s a short mobile QB. Guys with that build rarely ever got looks early in the draft. But as Wilson has demonstrated you don’t need to be 6’5 to be successful. Even Mayfield is smaller than what typically would’ve been considered your protypical #1 pick at QB.
Omg thank u because when I say that I almost soiled myself.
*saw
I’m just here for the popcorn and to listen to all the Johnny Superscouts
Mayfield is still what? 6’1? 6’2? Murray is 5’8-5’9. that’s a huuuuuge difference
In that case he can thank Drew Brees instead…
Brees lacks the mobility but sure he’s helped the cause as well.
And Russel Wilson was no Bo Jackson who was no Dave Winfield. But they’re all incredible athletes to be drafted (or likely drafted) in two major professional sports.
Three for Winfield.
Murray isn’t being compared to Wilson because they both played baseball, but because both are mobile and very undersized for their position.
You left our Tom Brady/baseball/1995 – 18th round/Expos.
You left out Dan Marino and John Elway too. Both by the Royals.
Drew Henson
I didn’t know Winfield was drafted by the NFL too. I looked it up and he was also drafted by the ABA. 4 leagues!
Give up.
He’s getting more guaranteed money, playing right away
Spare me the soap box about concussions. NFL QBs are protected now, more than ever. Feels like two-hand touch
exactly
Murray’s statement he issued today says it all on his feelings and intentions. You’re right and this is just posturing by the A’s.
It would be pretty easy for A’s to offer more than nfl contract. 8 year deal 30 million is a bargain compared to a good player before free agency.
Who said anything about concussions in this article?
Every thread here on this two-sport prospect, there’s hurt mlb fans who took decision personally, hurt A’s fans (be angry willing risk top-10 pick and even allowed him to play football!)
The worst are A’s fans, who want him to fail.
Add anti-sport clause, don’t encourage, by put him in position to get drafted first round of NFL.
I’m an A’s fan who is disappointed, but I certainly have no interest in seeing Kyler Murray fail. I know you’re great at throwing around broad generalizations that are usually lacking in the truth department, but it’s time to quit on this one. The real pathetic losers are those who wanted him to play football just to screw over the A’s. Baseball as an institution would be better for having an athlete like Kyler Murray, no matter what team you root for.
I didn’t know there were salty people on either of those sides, but I definitely believe it.
I’m sure Kyler told scouts that he wouldn’t sign if they didn’t allow him to play football, so an anit-sport clause would have been suicide. However, in hindsight, they would have been better off since they would have gotten the pick back.
Players are getting bigger, faster, and stronger every year and as a result NFL QBs are getting hit and getting sacked more than ever. The sack percentage of pass plays is up 12% in just the last 4 seasons and nearly 20% in the past 10 years. In 2008 no QB was hit 200 times and in 2018 Watson was hit 271 times in 505 pass plays. NFL QB’s life span in the NFL has dropped from 4.3 years for players in the 1980s to 1990s to 3.8 years in the 21st century.
In the NFL while they say that the rookie contracts are guaranteed, all that is guaranteed is the signing bonus and the NFL minimum. Paxton Lynch is getting NFL minimum for a 3 year and 4 year player in 2018 and 2019. He will not come close to the $9.5 million “guaranteed” he signed for. I read in the Denver Post at the start of the 2018 season, that he will end up with $7.2 million total of his $9.5 million “guaranteed” unless a team signs him for the 2019 season. Guaranteed has a different meaning in the NFL than in MLB.
I feel like qb lifespan has more to say about poor quality qb’s. A decent quality qb who is always broken (sam bradford) will still linger for years.
The difference though are the kind of sacks these days compared to how they used to be. They aren’t being hit in the head or below the knees. The tacklers aren’t leading with their helmets.
QBs are indeed safer than ever
maybe the owners should bring this up in the new CBA. If you sign a contract you must honor it. Could you imagine if a team voided a contract because they can get a better offer from another player. Let’s not forget Boras promised the A’s he would play baseball not football. So Boras went back on his word too.
That is so true, there are some really laughable penalties on the defense because they actually tackled the QB, how dare they.
we shall see the end result after your prediction.
Don’t spend more money trying to make a bad draft selection worse. Move on.
The A’s and their fans shouldn’t feel too bad about losing Murray. Take a look at his hiiting stats in college – not #1 worthy.
Secondly, the A’s found out about his decision after he tweeted it. Very classless for a guy who cashed their check and signed a contract.
The A’s don’t deserve a comp pick, because they accepted the risk. But they should definitely get every penny back from this guy AND his agent.
L.O.L.
Is he going to be worth it? Probably not, let him go. When he wants to come back and try baseball again when he’s 29 then so be it, he won’t make it then
Tebow 2 you say?
Good chance!
Shoulda drafted Matthew Liberatore. Smh Oakland..
Welp.
Kingsbury already hinted at the idea of taking him number 1 overall.
Never know, might trade Rosen and draft Murray.
Oakland knew the risks before they drafted him, can’t feel any sympathy for them.
Cardinals will trade down from #1
He didn’t hint at it… he was asked about him last year (when he was still at Texas tech) and he said he would take him #1. Little different.
The draftniks have Murray between 13 and 26. No one has him #1. At a relatively miniscule 5’9″ and 195 lbs Murray has little chance of making it long term in the NFL. pun intended For those who are trying to compare him to Russell Wilson, Wilson played against stronger competition in college and was 2 inches taller and 20 lbs heavier going into the draft and still went in the 3rd round.
Selling Rosen for pennies on the dollar after 1 year in order to draft a 5’8 QB is a great way to mess up 2 straight drafts.
True, give Rosen a few years. Most QBs aren’t great their first year, especially under defensive head coaches.
Nick Bosa is the consensus for #1 pick.
I thought it was future two sport hall of famer Eob Refsnyder.
That is a pretty silly comment. No one in their right mind is taking Murray number one overall in the NFL draft. It will be a miracle if he is taken in the 1st round at all unless he absolutely shines in the NFL Combine. He played an easy schedule at Oklahoma and he is a tiny little guy. He has a body made for baseball, not the NFL.
You’re the one with the silly comment “It will be a miracle if he is taken in the 1st round at all unless he shines in the NFL combine”. He is considered to be the highest rated QB eligible, and most boards have him anywhere from 9-15 in the first round.
Oakland just got screwed but at the same time why would you want to convince him to play baseball when he really wants to play football more??? What type of player would he be then??
If he falls to the 2nd round and Oakland offers say 20 million instead of 5 he might reconsider. You never know. This would be a crazy scenario getting a deal this early on. I’m sure other ML execs would be pissed at Beane and Co. if this happened but you’ve got guys like Scott Kingery signing deals before they’ve ever played a ML game as well.
If Murray falls to the 2nd round and is looking at a max rookie contract of $4-7 million, he may rethink joining the NFL. As we get closer to the draft and see his performance in the Combine and Pro days, his draft stock may fall even further.
Because he is so small he will have to have numbers better than 4.50 seconds in the 40, a 20 yard shuttle under 4 seconds, a 3 cone under 6.90 seconds, and QB ball velocity over 55 mph to have any shot at the 1st round. An elite arm is 60 mph or above. His Wonderlic will have to be off the charts good too.
Why do they keep begging this guy, let him go stop
Just let him play football!! You guys messed up, just accept it and move on!
Aren’t the A’s embarrassed enough? You asked the short girl to prom but she said no. Just move on.
Wut?
They need to allow the picks to be tradable, and expand the league by six teams. They can make an agreement allowing teams to send players no one will value at 5-10 million to foreign leagues for a year or two so they get 2-4 million and aceue half a season of service time while that team keeps their rights and gains 40 man roster spots. If the right prospect comes along baseball is competitive in everything except a chance to start. They need to keep the luxury tax where it is while eliminating the draft penalty. Teams will be more willing to incur monetary only penalties while players will receive more and rebuilding/mid-market teams gain money. Everyone wins.
6 more cities get baseball teams? TB, Oak and Miami barely support the ones they have. You’ll see relocation long before expansion.
Wrong. All those teams are making money, despite attendance issues. The rousing success of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights shows expansion can still be highly beneficial regardless of having a handful of existing teams who appear to be struggling.
The MLB won’t add one team. It would be two. They won’t be adding two teams any time soon. Teams like the Rays are wildly profitable due to revenue sharing and the fact that they spend nothing on their roster. That doesn’t make it a good market to be in. They’re essentially subsidized by the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers etc. They play in the 2nd worst stadium in the big leagues and there’s no plan to improve any time soon. I’ll bet they go elsewhere before you see any movement on the expansion page.
The NHL is a completely different business model in which teams operate on lower budgets with more spending restrictions
For MLB any team without a lucrative tv contract survives largely off revenue sharing. The more teams you add without big markets, the less money each gets from the pool
There’s maybe 2 or 3 markets in the US right now that are viable (Austin/San Antonio, Raleigh, maybe Vegas), so I have no idea where the idea of 6 new teams comes from.
Perhaps Montreal if you include Canada but it’s not like any of these markets are can’t miss winners like DC.
Been there done that.
Montreal was dying as a market long before the strike, honestly. They had trouble selling even local TV and radio rights.
There’s still some diehard expos fans left, which is why people keep pushing to give it a new team, but there’s really not enough to sustain a team, and not a lot of growth potential from the surrounding area.
The last part is pretty important. A new team needs room outside it’s city to draw from as much as the metro population. DC was lucky in the sense that Baltimore has been losing fans for a while, so it gave them that space.
I live in that metro area and it doesn’t really have anything to do with Baltimore losing fans. It’s just not doable to come to an orioles game if you live in the greater DC area. Traffic is an absolute nightmare on weekdays and if you’re more than a 35-40 min drive south of Baltimore you’re not hitting many O’s games. And the Traffic works both ways from Baltimore I’d never go to a nats game. The amount of time it’d take for me to get down there on a weekday I could practically make it up to philly for a Phillies game.
The isn’t enough pitching to around. With more teams, you more bad small market teams that don’t draw fans.
They can trade him son btw
I don’t know, I’m not a fan of limiting what teams can do, but you give tradable draft picks to a guy like AJ Preller or Jerry Dipoto and you have disaster for a franchise. There’s a reason owners are behind this, baseball and football/basketball draft picks are vastly different. Trading a draft pick in baseball doesn’t start hurting you until 5 years out, longer than some of these guys’ tenures. And recovering from that is disastrous, because you have a minimum of 3-4 years generally until anything good comes up and then maybe 5 years after that until you have fully developed players in their prime? With the other sports, they’re playing pro ball right out of the draft so 2-3 years and you’ve got a good core. In baseball you could be looking at 10 years of irrelevance. And when I say irrelevance, I mean so much that there are no prospects and no hope of competition.
They’re just trying to save face. I respect the gamble they took in picking him so high, but they made a bad decision and I don’t see anything changing that.
It would be stupid for him to decide to skip football no matter what the A’s offer. He won the Heisman Trophy for crying out loud. They dont give those out to average players. Unless I’m wrong? He’s gonna get pissed if you keep buggin’ him about it
Well Heisman winners have only had one All-Pro season in the last 15 years so no, Heismans are not particularly great indicators of success in the NFL.
True, regardless, it certainly helped his draft stock.
Even though teams have this data, irony Heisman is what probably sealed football as choice lol
Why do you always type in sentence fragments? Reading some of your comments makes my brain hurt…….
He also said it’s ironic that winning the Heisman is probably what made him want to play football.
I don’t think english is Xabial’s first language.
Not what I wanted to hear… I have six hours to write five-page essay.
yeah, you better ask for an extension bud. Just show your teacher the irony Heisman line and I’m sure they’ll grant it to you.
Will Billy Brand & Co. offer Kyler a stupid amount of guaranteed money just so they don’t lose him? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z.
If his hearts not in it, let him go. I personally think he’s too small to be a successful NFL quarterback but what do I know. There’s no guarantee of success in baseball either so chase your dream Kyler.
Baseball on average would be a longer professional career. But you go with which sport you love more.
Football is also the quicker path. Guys go right to the pros and get pro contracts. He is described as raw so he’d have years to develop before he could reach baseball’s highest level and may not ever do it. Right now he obviously has an easier path to NFL money than MLB money.
As a Yankees fan with no stake in Murray’s decision, it makes some sense for Oakland to try their hardest to convince him to stick around. With that said, if I’m Billy Beane & Co. I’m not even making him an offer until after I know where he’s drafted by an NFL team.
If he’s a top 10 pick, make him an offer he can’t refuse. Outside the top 10, offer him 3 million a year over the next 5 years. If he falls out of the first round, go for coffee and let his agent leave a few voicemails before calling him back, then trade him to the Mets and let him languish next to another failed college QB by the name of Saint Timmy.
I believe i heard Bert Breer mention that among execs he has spoken with, not one views Kyler as a first round pick
How long will the lineman block for him if he keeps hitting them in their heads with his passes?
Denial, strong within the A’s it is.
Murrys football stock skyrocketed his final collegiate year. The A’s took a risk. Nothing wrong with maintaining interest in retaining him. No reason to cut bait yet. Let’s see where he goes in the draft and move on from there. Worse case the A.’s will get the signing bonus back. Patience is a wise course of action.
This is a whole lot of issue for a simple first round pick. Around 40% of first rounders never even make the majors and around another 40% don’t make that much of an impact in the majors. Everybody is acting like MLB is on the verge of shutting down just because one guy chose football over baseball. Be disappointed if you want, but get some perspective on the actual gravity of this situation.
The outrage towards Murray for making this choice seems to fit into the following categories…
A) A’s fans upset that their team is hurt by this decision, losing a prospect and getting no comp pick.
B) Baseball fans upset that football wins out yet again, worried about the status of their favorite sport.
C) Those who resent that certain people having options in life, especially options they do not have in life.
You’re mostly right Im sure and none of the three holds a lot of water.
A) the As took a risk, a known risk. It may ultimately be a good thing, he may have never contributed anything meaningful to the organization and in hindsight saving the money was good.There are tons of wasted picks every year.
B) sick athletes are sick athletes. There are tons of examples of athletes who have options and football doesnt always win. Names like Mauer, Winfield, Helton, Erstad, Gwynn, Glavine, Lofton and so many more took the baseball path. Baseball is fine, nothing to be upset about.
C) jealousy gets you nowhere, let it go.
Honestly, none of those – I’m upset that Murray (if you read his quote) states he was raised to be a QB when he announced the nfl path…and we’ll after being drafted. Boras complicit too, ftm. The presumption is that while Oakland took chances, they’re not stupid and if he sat down with them pre-draft and stated “I was raised to be a QB” would they have still drafted him, knowing that should he change his mind, they’d get nothing? You may not like the A’s, but I have a hard time believing they would’ve taken the risk if Murray (and Boras) were honest upfront. Why would you?
Wish him the best. I just think he’ll be humbled by how high he thinks he’ll go in the draft…….unless my Redskins pull a Redskins
He’ll be gone by the middle of the first round with $15 million in his pocket. I’m sure he’ll be just fine.
What a waste of a draft pick.
let it go Oakland. he likes the nfl. time to stay in the friend zone.
So he got drafted by the A’s. Didn’t he sign a contract with them? Didn’t he take there money in signing bonus already. 1.8 or 1.9 million. Now he says “I changed my mind. Thanks for the interest free loan. Pay you back when I can. You didn’t think my signature on the contract was a bond or a commitment or anything did you?” What a joke this kid is.
Its Murray’s right to play whatever sport he wants to ultimately. However, it feels like he knew that the NFL would be his choice all along, and winning the Heisman only solidified that. Seems like Oakland could have been extended the courtesy of being notified months ago, and not having to find this out via Twitter. Not terribly professional on Murray’s part.
However, it’s also on Oakland. This outcome was always a possibility and Oakland should have been so much wiser. The fact that they wasted a first round pick on a guy who might not even suit up for your club is just foolish.
The A’s were only purchasing his baseball rights, not his future. If he ever goes back to baseball he’s still contractually bound to the A’s.
Everybody knew this was a good possibility when the A’s drafted him, so there was no deception or dishonesty on Murray’s part.
If you wanna be mad at anybody, be mad at Oakland
Legit question. If Murray goes to NFL and busts and 4-5 years from now he decides to come back to baseball the As retain his rights since he signed. He has to return the money now, do they negotiate what he signs for then?
Yes. The A’s retain his rights if he come back.
He does not get his signing bonus back I don’t think, because in this case it was negotiated as dependent on him not playing football.
I believe in this case if he returns he returns on a standard 1st year player salary.
Thanks, makes sense.
Oakland: What are the chances of a team like you and a player like me… ending up together?
Murray: Not good.
Oakland: Not good, like one in a hundred?
Murray: I’d say more like one in a million.
Oakland: So you’re telling me there’s a chance?
A’s just stop. Dont embarrass yourselves. This is going to get awkward. You took a chance and got dogged. Suck it up and let the kid focus on his chosen profession.
Expansion, or the promise of same, will happen before the new CBA gets into serious negotiation. The likely one billion dollar franchise fee for 2 teams means about 55M for every team (MLB always keeps some for itself), and with revenue growth possibility shrinking (the Golden Age of franchise growth is over) , that 55M is going to be too attractive to pass up.
The situations in Tampa and Oakland will be resolved by their respective owners, or MLB will simply force the current owners out. They’ve done it before; see Pittsburgh, Cinncy, the original Devil Rays.
55M is a lot of millions. And for those who think that windfall will go to payroll, I’ll remind everyone that every team recently received about 45M from MLB’s sale of MLBLAM to Disney, and payrolls (as a function of revenue) have gone down, not up.
Expansion creates eight 4-team divisions, ends the inherent silliness of Tampa having to compete against monoliths like Boston and New York (the Rays can do everything right, the Red Sox everything wrong, and the Sox will still make more money), and creates more playoffs, the real money-maker. And drastically cuts travel costs.
More teams means less in revenue sharing per team per season, so basically every team would have to agree to take a lump sum up front in exchange for less in the future
Most small market teams would rather have the latter.
So yeah, the odds of expansion in the near future remain long
I understand that it is the risk you take but I still think the A’s should get something if he picks football. A compensatory pick at the least. How long does oakland retain his rights should he flame out in the NFL? Indefinitely?
The A’s went into this with eyes opened. It would be unfair to the rest of baseball to give them a comp pick simply because they took a gamble and lost.
No it would be fair, very fair actually. Teams get picks back when the player doesn’t sign, I don’t see why this is any different.
Because he did sign?
It’s a coherent point, but I’d argue a couple of points:
1. It’s conceivable that the new teams won’t need RS money, especially at the beginning; even the Devil Rays drew 2.5M their first year of existence, a number they haven’t come close to matching.
2. Even if the new teams did, it could always be ameliorated by a smaller franchise fee.
3. The basic formula for RS is likely to change. The John Henry-s of the world are just tired of pumping money into Stienberg-s of the world, and seeing that money not used to improve the product on the field. Selling “the future” (a future that never really comes) and “tanking” are marketing paradigms that have completely fallen out of favor. The bottom line is, the Big Boys aren’t happy with the current system. And when the Big Boys aren’t happy, things change.
4. Will the lower revenue teams be happy with expansion/new formulas?. They COULD be, since realignment will lead to more competitiveness possibilities. And if they’re not happy, tough cookies. Henry spent 700M to buy the Sox; Steinberg 200M to buy the Rays. If the Sox make more money, that’s just too bad.
I’m not giving up hope of weighing what I did in high school. Hope only gets you so far
Kyler Murray: “I am firmly and fully committing my life to becoming an NFL QB…”
A’s: We still think we have a chance…