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.