The Oakland A’s will likely never have anything to show for drafting Kyler Murray with the No. 9 overall pick in the MLB Draft, but that does not mean they regret taking a chance on the two-sport star.
Murray officially announced on Monday that he is fully committed to pursuing a career in the NFL, meaning he will not be reporting to training camp with the A’s later this week. He’ll have to repay the portion of his signing bonus that he already received, though the A’s will keep his rights. Shortly after Murray made his intentions clear, A’s general manager David Forst said the team does not regret drafting Murray.
It's unclear when the A's learned of Kyler Murray's decision, but GM David Forst says, "We’ve known from the tone of the conversations that he could choose the NFL."
— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) February 11, 2019
Forst: "We took the best athlete on the board and what we thought was the best baseball player on the board too. We don’t regret the pick at all."
— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) February 11, 2019
The A’s had no idea Murray would go on to win the Heisman Trophy and become a potential first-round pick, so you can’t blame them for taking the best player available. At the time, it seemed like a no-brainer.
Some scouts have said they view Murray as a second- or third-round pick in the NFL, but it seems unlikely that he would choose football if he wasn’t fairly certain he will be drafted in the first round. The way NFL executives reportedly feel about Murray is likely a better indicator of his current draft stock.
