Patrick Mahomes could have played professional baseball had he chosen that career path rather than focusing on football, and the Kansas City Chiefs star still aspires to play for an MLB team — at least in the offseason.
Mahomes was both a baseball and football star at Whitehouse High School in Whitehouse, Texas. He even threw a no-hitter his senior year. Mahomes was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 37th round of the 2014 MLB Draft, but he did not sign a contract and instead enrolled at Texas Tech. He then played baseball his freshman and sophomore seasons in college before giving the former up to focus solely on being a quarterback.
Obviously, Mahomes made the right choice. But in an interview with TIME magazine that was published on Tuesday, the three-time Super Bowl champion admitted he is still hopeful he can take part in spring training with the Kansas City Royals one year.
“I’ve talked to the Royals,” Mahomes said. “And if I can maybe go out to a spring training, I’m not opposed to that. I’ll get it approved by the Chiefs and everything like that. But maybe one of these years I go out there and see what I got. See if I can still hit the ball or pitch or whatever that is. Maybe not in the games but I can at least practice with them.”
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid told TIME that he has not yet thought about whether the team would grant Mahomes permission to scratch his baseball itch. Reid did, however, say that Mahomes is “pretty gifted” and that Reid thinks the two-time NFL MVP would be able to play in the majors.
Mahomes owns a minority stake in the Royals, so they would almost certainly welcome him into spring training for the publicity alone. The Chiefs would probably just want him to be wrapped in bubble paper when he took the field.
