Rangers draft Seahawks QB Russell Wilson
Yes, Russell Wilson loves baseball. But, for now, the Seattle
Seahawks’ quarterback is thinking about getting his team to the
Super Bowl.
Wilson was selected by the Texas Rangers from the Colorado
Rockies on Thursday in the Triple-A portion of baseball’s winter
meeting draft.
Wilson, who played minor league baseball for parts of two
seasons before becoming an NFL star, will be placed on Texas’
restricted list.
”At the end of the day, he obviously has a lot bigger things
that he’s working on right now,” Rangers assistant general manager
A.J. Preller said, ”and we don’t want to interrupt with that
aspect of it. But if at some point down the road he decides he
wants to do baseball again, we felt like it would be a positive to
have him with us.”
Wilson was drafted as a second baseman by the Rockies in the
fourth round of the 2010 amateur draft out of North Carolina State,
where he excelled at both baseball and football. In two seasons at
the Class A level he hit .229 with five homers and 26 RBIs.
In 2011, he left the Rockies for football at the University of
Wisconsin. He was required to return to the Rockies a part of his
$200,000 signing bonus.
Wilson said he was stunned Thursday when he got the phone call
from Texas general manager Jon Daniels.
”It’s a pretty cool thing. It’s my third time being drafted in
baseball so it’s a blessing for sure,” Wilson said. ”At the same
time my focus is on football. Mr. Daniels and I talked about that
obviously. He knew that. … My focus is on football and what we’re
doing here.”
The 25-year-old Wilson was taken in the third round of the 2012
NFL draft. He led Seattle to the playoffs in his rookie year and
the Seahawks are 11-2 this season. Wilson has been a regular fan at
Seattle Mariners games during the football offseason.
”I love baseball. But football is where my first love is,”
Wilson said. ”It’s a blessing to be able to have the experience of
playing professional baseball before and obviously playing in the
National Football League doesn’t get any better.”
The Rangers thought the $12,000 fee they will have to pay the
Rockies was worth the investment.
”You see him playing on Sunday. You hear about the work ethic,
the person,” Preller said. ”I think that’s going to be a positive
message for all of our players in our system.”
—
AP Sports Writer Tim Booth and freelance writer Mark Didtler
contributed to this report.