Oakland Athletics: Kyler Murray not considered a lock to play in 2019

The Oakland Athletics expected to get their top pick of the 2018 MLB Amateur Draft, Kyler Murray, for the 2019 season. According to reports, that may not happen.

The Oakland Athletics knew they would be without this top overall pick, Kyler Murray, for some time. The two sport star in college was determined to finish out his senior year as the Oklahoma Sooners quarterback, pushing back his professional baseball career. Even with that delay, the A’s selected Murray with the ninth overall pick, expecting that he would report to Spring Training in 2019.

However, that may not be the case. According to reports, it is not considered a gaurantee that Murray plays baseball this season, as he is going to assess his future with his family.

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If that is the case, it is a tremendous blow to the A’s hopes for the future. He is an intriguing player with his tools, a prospect that had drawn interest prior to the 2015 Draft before he opted out of the process to head to college. That proved to be the correct decision, as Murray become a top prospect in both baseball and football.

On the diamond, Murray is still a work in progress, but has developed nicely. His contact and pitch recognition have improved, allowing him to tap into his offensive potential. He has the bat speed to have be a decent power hitter, where he is projected as a future average player. His greatest asset is his tremendous speed, which is expected to make him a weapon on the basepaths.

That development is not just limited to his approach at the plate. He still needs to develop defensively, learning better routes and improving his ability to read the ball off the bat. Yet, the talent and speed are there where it is considered that Murray would be a solid center fielder, provided he chooses the diamond over the gridiron.

Naturally, the question is, why not both? Back in the day, players like Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, and Brian Jordan were two sport stars, playing baseball and football simultaneously, even doing so on the same day. However, given the specialization and the constant training inherant in professional sports at present, those days appear long over. Murray may have the talent for both, but that decision could be out of his hands.

The Oakland Athletics have an intriguing talent in Kyler Murray. That is, if he decides to eschew the gridiron and begin his professional baseball career in 2019.