{"id":515453,"date":"2026-03-05T06:56:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T06:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/515453\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T06:56:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T06:56:07","slug":"the-athletics-wont-close-door-on-kyler-murray-but-is-mlb-really-an-option-for-free-agent-qb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/515453\/","title":{"rendered":"The Athletics won\u2019t close door on Kyler Murray. But is MLB really an option for free-agent QB?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Add the first professional team that drafted Kyler Murray to the list of franchises that might be interested in the services of the soon-to-be NFL free agent quarterback.<\/p>\n<p>That would be baseball\u2019s Athletics, who selected Murray with the No. 9 pick in the 2018 MLB draft and inked the five-tool University of Oklahoma outfielder to a contract that included a $4.66 million bonus.<\/p>\n<p>A\u2019s general manager David Forst <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/kyler-murray-released-a-s-open-to-reunion-with-former-first-round-draft-pick\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">told MLB.com\u00a0on Wednesday<\/a> that the team has never closed the door on a possible reunion with Murray despite his February 2019 decision to forgo professional baseball and enter that year\u2019s NFL draft, in which the Arizona Cardinals made him the No. 1 pick.<\/p>\n<p>That NFL marriage came to an end on Tuesday when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7084465\/2026\/03\/03\/kyler-murray-released-cardinals-nfl-free-agency\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arizona announced it planned to release Murray<\/a> next Wednesday on the first day of the league year.<\/p>\n<p>Although left at the altar in 2019, the A\u2019s have never completely forgotten about what might have been, Forst said. \u201cKyler is an elite NFL quarterback, and I\u2019m sure there are plenty of opportunities for him to continue his football career,\u201d he told MLB.com. \u201cThat said, he and his baseball representatives know that we\u2019re always open to him exploring a return to baseball with the A\u2019s if that time ever comes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In his final baseball season at Oklahoma, Murray hit .296 with 10 home runs and 47 RBIs in 51 games for the Sooners. In his final football season in Norman, he became the seventh Sooner to win the Heisman Trophy.<\/p>\n<p>Murray once considered playing both sports. Ahead of the 2018 Heisman ceremony, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/701540\/2018\/12\/07\/kyler-murray-isnt-sweating-the-heisman-scene-but-the-as-may-start-worrying-whether-hes-going-to-choose-baseball\/?source=emp_shared_article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Murray told reporters<\/a>, \u201cI would love to play (both professionally). I\u2019ve always been a guy of many options, and I\u2019m trying to keep them open as long as possible. If that was possible, I would definitely be open to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, Murray chose to focus exclusively on football. He returned most of the bonus money he received from the A\u2019s and was placed on MLB\u2019s restricted list, with the Athletics retaining exclusive rights to his baseball services.<\/p>\n<p>Murray is 28 now, and there have been no indications that he is considering a return to baseball. The Vikings, Dolphins, Jets and Falcons are among the NFL teams expected to reach out to gauge his interest in playing quarterback for them.<\/p>\n<p>But just in case he still wants to scratch that baseball itch, Forst made it clear that the A\u2019s would be happy to talk with the player that former team executive vice president and \u201cMoneyball\u201d legend Billy Beane called \u201cone of the most dynamic athletes that we\u2019ve selected since I\u2019ve been here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Add the first professional team that drafted Kyler Murray to the list of franchises that might be interested&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[1745,495,49,48,462,514,82],"class_list":["post-515453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-athletics","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}