NFL stars make their pitch to baseball amid MLB lockout

Major League Baseball is in distress right now, but two NFL stars are ready to answer the call.

Tennessee Titans receiver AJ Brown posted a video of himself in the batting cage on Tuesday. Brown took some good hacks in the video and tagged the San Diego Padres in his post.

Not long after, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson replied by telling the Orioles that he could do the same for them in two weeks.

The Orioles are Jackson’s local MLB team right now. But why did Brown pitch his services to the Padres specifically? It turns out that he was actually drafted by them in the 18th round of the 2016 MLB Draft. Brown was a two-sport star in both baseball and football during high school. Getting drafted by the Padres made him ineligible to play baseball in college at Ole Miss though, and he ultimately went with the football route instead.

As part of the ongoing MLB lockout, there is a current freeze on transactions that applies to members of the MLBPA. But neither Brown, whose MLB rights are still owned by the Padres, nor Jackson, whose MLB rights are not owned by anyone, belong to the MLBPA. With football not starting up for them again until training camp in late July … well, fans can certainly dream.

With Brown and Jackson both making their pitches to play MLB baseball, we know of another NFL star who might want to join them too.

Photo: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports