2015 Draft Prospect Profile: Kyler Murray

Published

May 4, 2015

Kyler Murray is a player that most teams don’t have a very good read on because he is one of the top QB prospects in the country and is going to Texas A&M to play football. While he normally would be a top of the draft board prospect because he has such a big time football scholarship plus family connections to Boras Corp has him sliding down. It also doesn’t help he has some shoulder issues so he is only DH because of it.

Tools:
Murray is a great athlete which is why an elite football program like A&M would recruit him to play QB. He has great speed and foot speed with scouts throwing 70’s and 80’s on there. Being a football recruit also gives him good hands and he will just need reps to keep himself in the infield which is what people believe will happen. Bat speed is the best tool offensively right now which scouts are calling a 60 which produces good raw power. It will be learning barrel control that Murray will need to do if he goes the MLB route.

Factors to consider:
The football scholarship is a big hang up as he can go to an elite SEC school and play football. The good news for MLB teams is he isn’t considered a great pro prospect at QB as he is only 5’11” and 170 lbs. So a team that has a few million can go after him and that’s only a handful of teams.

My take:
I don’t think the Yankees will go after him even if he is there because he will want a lot of money and there is tons of risk. I think they would rather go after kids who they think will commit fully which is something that Murray might not want to do right away. Now if they take him with the 10^th pick and use some extra bonus money to sign him while letting him play college football that might be an option but I don’t think the Yankees will want to set that precedent with their draft picks. The kid has a ton of talent but might also have a big ego, the area scouts would know that better than anyone. I could see him having that as he has his own wiki page at 17 years old (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyler_Murray).