Kyler Murray still 'would love' to play baseball

Still thinking about the possibility of Kyler Murray being a two-sport athlete in football and baseball? So is Murray.

The Arizona Cardinals quarterback and former A’s prospect told Arizona Republic reporter Bob McManaman that following in the footsteps of famous two-sport athletes like Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders is still something Murray “would love to add to the résumé.”

Apart from the physical and logistical challenges of playing both sports professionally (the MLB regular-season calendar runs into the start of the NFL regular season, for starters), Murray would have to restructure his contract with the Cardinals. NFL Network reporter Ian Rapaport notes that Murray’s pact with Arizona lists baseball as one of the activities that would place him in default of his contract. That includes tryouts, scrimmages and exhibition games with clubs in any professional baseball league.

“That is not going to happen,” Rapaport reiterated several times Friday of Murray’s two-sport dream. “The standard club addendum that Murray signed, and members of the Arizona Cardinals front office signed, prevents him from playing baseball.”

• Top athletes to play two sports

Though the Cardinals finished the regular season 5-10-1, Murray solidified his status as the franchise’s quarterback of the future. The rookie passed for 3,722 yards and 20 touchdowns, and rushed for 544 yards and an additional four scores. He was the A’s first-round selection in the 2018 MLB Draft, taken with the No. 9 overall pick, out of the University of Oklahoma -- where he won the ’18 Heisman Trophy as college football’s best player.

Murray, an outfielder on the diamond, was graded as the A’s No. 4 prospect by MLB Pipeline before he entered the NFL Draft in January 2019. The Cardinals selected Murray with the No. 1 overall pick.

Should Murray ever return to baseball, the A's still retain his baseball rights indefinitely.