Johnny Football may become Johnny Baseball after the San Diego Padres drafted Johnny Manziel with the 837th pick in the 28th round of the MLB Draft on Saturday.
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Manziel, who was listed as a shortstop for Texas A&M but only focused on playing football for the Aggies, was selected by the Cleveland Browns with the 22nd overall pick of the NFL draft last month. Manziel won the Heisman Trophy in 2012.
"It was kind of, 'Why not,'" Padres general manager Josh Byrnes said on Saturday before the Padres defeated the Washington Nationals 4-3, according to ESPN.
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Manziel visited the Padres in May 2013 when he was in San Diego working with a quarterback coach and he even threw out the first pitch and took batting practice with the team. "He certainly loves baseball," Byrnes said via ESPN. "We kind of talked about it at that time, 'Do you want us to draft you?' He said, 'Yeah, absolutely.'"
Big thank you to the @Padres and @padresmikedee for selecting me in the MLB draft. What a great day! pic.twitter.com/MaTKVZ5JqY — Johnny Manziel (@JManziel2) June 7, 2014
While it's unlikely he'll ever play baseball for the Padres, some members of the team were talking about Manziel being drafted.
"I didn't know he played baseball," Padres right-hander Ian Kennedy told ESPN. "Anybody in Texas probably plays all those sports, football, baseball."
Padres closer Huston Street talked about the possibility of Manziel playing both sports.
"I would tell him to don't try to be a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. But at the same time, it's been done before. I don't know about at the quarterback position. A little bit tougher position," Street said per ESPN.
While it's doubtful that Johnny Football will leave the gridiron for the diamond, the Padres decided to take a chance by selecting him in the 28th round.
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