Wilson coming for extended spring stay
TAMPA — The Yankees are ready for their visiting professor.
Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson plans to arrive at George M. Steinbrenner Field on Monday and spend the better part of the week with the Yankees. It will be, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, a lowkey, high-profile residency for the Super Bowl champion who answers to “The Professor.”
“I don’t want him to come in and feel like he’s got to address this, or do that,” Boone said Sunday at George M. Steinbrenner Field, before he departed for the Yankees’ game in Clearwater. “I want him to come in and kind of be himself, and get to know us, and enjoy himself. And I think a lot of our guys will benefit from him just being in camp.
“It’s exciting to see how excited he is about being here and then even wanting to stay for, I think, he’s staying for five or six days. We’re excited for it.”
Wilson, who played second base in the Rockies’ minor-league system in 2010 and 2011, was selected by the Rangers in the minor-league portion of the 2013 Rule 5 draft — at which point he already was an NFL star — with the idea that he would pop into Texas’ camp and positively impact the organization.
In 2014, his first visit, Wilson spoke formally to the players in the Rangers’ minor league camp, spent time with the major leaguers and attended a dinner with young major leaguers. The next year, he went to a dinner the Rangers set up with top prospects.
Wilson had been inactive since then on the baseball front until he asked the Rangers to trade his rights to the Yankees, which they did this month.
“His routine is so good,” Rangers president of baseball operations and general manager Jon Daniels wrote of Wilson on Sunday in a text message. “His mental preparation and strength are really impressive.”
Since winning Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium in 2014, Wilson has faced some internal turbulence on the Seahawks. A May 2017 piece in ESPN The Magazine contended the quarterback played a prominent role in tension between Seattle’s offense and defense.
“You’re the very first person who’s brought anything up,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told The Post. “… I reached out to a number of our players before doing it, and they were like, ‘Wow, that would be amazing! I would love to spend some time with that guy in camp!’ ”