Murray picks NFL over the A’s
Two-sport star, Oakland’s No. 1 draft pick last June, following his ‘passion’
MESA, ARIZ. >> The slim chance of Kyler Murray reporting to the A’s spring training camp is officially over.
Murray, a two-sport star at Oklahoma, announced Monday via Twitter that he will focus on the NFL draft, scheduled for April 25-27. The Heisman Trophywinning quarterback didn’t mention the A’s in his post.
“Moving forward, I am firmly and fully committing my life and time to becoming an NFL quarterback,” Murray wrote. “Football has been my love and passion my entire life. I was raised to play QB, and I very much look forward to dedicating 100% of myself to being the best QB possible and winning NFL championships.
“I have started an extensive training program to further prepare myself for upcoming NFL workouts and interviews. I eagerly await the opportunity to prove to NFL decision makers that I am the franchise QB in this draft.”
The announcement didn’t surprise Oakland executives.
“We’ve known from the tone of the conversations that he could choose the NFL,” general manager David Forst said Monday. “We’ll focus on what we need to do to make sure if
he comes back to baseball at some point, he’ll come back with the A’s.”
Manager Bob Melvin plans to root for Murray’s NFL pursuits, saying Monday that “I have a hard time
believing he’s not going to have a great football career.”
Shortly before the announcement, A’s executive vice president Billy Beane made light of the situation when asked if he’d draft Murray again considering the circumstances.
“If I get do-overs can I invest in Apple stock 30 years ago,” Beane joked. “I don’t get do-overs.”
Reports surfaced last week that Murray would attend the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis, Feb.26-March 4, after his name was among those invited by the NFL. The A’s had hoped Murray still would show up to camp Feb. 15, the club’s official report date for position players. The untouched locker set up for Murray with the No. 73 inside the Hohokam Stadium clubhouse will be cleaned out.
NFL draft experts project Murray to be taken in the first round after his historic 2018 football season with the Sooners.
The A’s will place Murray on the restricted list and still hold his baseball rights. But for now, Oakland has wasted the No. 9 overall pick from last year’s baseball draft.
Melvin doesn’t expect Murray to return to the diamond. Melvin, who watched the 5-foot-11 Murray closely last college season, was impressed by how successful the quarterback played despite his small frame.
“The guy is a gamer,” said Melvin, noting Murray’s resilience while leading a furious comeback that fell just short against Alabama in the College Football Playoffs semifinal.
While the A’s get no compensation in the form of a draft pick, Murray will have to return the bulk of his $4.66 million signing bonus. The quarterback will return $1.29 million of the $1.5 million he already has received. He also forfeits $3.1 million due March 1.
The A’s knew the risk they were taking in June by drafting Murray. They allowed him to play one more season of football as the successor to the previous year’s Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield. At the time, the A’s had hoped Murray would focus solely on baseball shortly after the football season. That gamble backfired, but Forst said the A’s decided Murray’s supreme talent outweighed the risk of losing him to the NFL.
“We took the best athlete on the board and what we thought was the best player on the board,” Forst said. “We don’t regret the pick at all.”
Frost sounded upbeat, vowing to make up for the loss with another first-round selection this year.
“You never like to lose a first-round pick or the opportunity that comes with it, but we like the shape our system is in,” Forst said. HUNDLEY JOINS MIX AT CATCHER >> A slow free agent market seems to be working in favor of the A’s for a second consecutive season.
Nick Hundley, who spent the previous two seasons as the backup to Giants star Buster Posey, arrived at Hohokam Stadium Monday after agreeing to a minor league deal with the A’s.
Hundley, 35, put up numbers last season that appeared to be worthy of a major league deal, hitting .241 with 10 home runs and 31 RBIs over 96 games with San Francisco, yet remained available as the A’s opened up spring training in a similar situation to Jonathan Lucroy last year.
After conversations with several clubs, Hundley decided the A’s were a good fit.
“Playing against them, I’ve always respected the way that their players play the game,” Hundley said. “Always from afar, there are organizations that you look at and say I’d like to play for them at some point in my career, and this is definitely one of them.”
The competition for the A’s catching job expands to three, with Chris Herrmann and Josh Phegley, who the A’s said they felt comfortable beginning the season in a platoon, as the chief competition.
“I’m coming in and competing,” Hundley said. “This is an organization that has done a lot of good things, had an unbelievable year last year. I’m excited to try to help build on it.”
In 11 big league seasons, Hundley brings some pop with 91 career home runs. But perhaps even more valuable than Hundley’s power bat is the experience he brings to the table.
Melvin understands how vital a role experience behind the plate plays in developing a winning ballclub. He lauded Lucroy last season for his ability to nurture the A’s pitching staff and already saw similarities between the former A’s catcher and Hundley during the club’s first formal workout of the spring Monday.
The starting job isn’t Hundley’s just yet, but he figures to have the upper hand as spring begins.
“We like all three of these guys and we would have been fine going into the season with the other two,” Melvin said. “We’ll figure it out at the end.”
ANDERSON RETURNING >> Free agent lefthander Brett Anderson, who bolstered the rotation in his return to the A’s last season, has reached an agreement on a one-year deal for 2019, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Anderson, 31, was 4-5 in 17 starts with a 4.48 ERA for the A’s last season. His first stint with the A’s was from 2009-13.