Two-sport star Kyler Murray was selected ninth overall by the Oakland Athletics in last June’s MLB Draft, and was given a $4.6 million signing bonus. And then he went on to win the Heisman Trophy for his incredible, electrifying efforts as quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners.
Well, earlier in the week, reports emerged that Murray is expected to enter the NFL Draft, and many evaluators think he’d be a first-round pick (and if so, he’d be the first athlete to ever be selected in the first round in both the MLB and NFL drafts).
On Sunday, several outlets reported that Billy Beane and the Oakland brass were meeting with Murray in an attempt to get him to stick to baseball.
WFAA’s Mike Leslie had more specific details, reporting that Murray is asking for $15 million from the A’s. And if that dollar amount isn’t reached, Murray intends to enter the NFL Draft on Monday.
This all creates a highly unique situation, and one in which Murray has a ton of leverage. Obviously, MLB should really, really want Murray to choose baseball.
And ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that MLB is prepared to “waive a rule preventing teams from giving major league contracts to recently drafted players” if Murray can agree to a new contract with the A’s.
Jeff Passan's tweet is very good news for recently drafted players. Cant imagine this will be the last use of this newly created loophole.
— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) January 13, 2019
And a few additional tweets on the topic:
It will be interesting to see the route Murray chooses, and of course if the A’s are willing to meet his demands. We should have an answer to all of this in the coming hours.