Russell Wilson is doing pretty good at his football gig but the Texas Rangers could not resist picking up the quartberback in baseball’s Rule 5 Draft.
A few years ago Wilson was a second baseman in the Colorado Rockies system. He never got above Class-A but the Rangers were willing to spend $12,000 for the rights to place him on their restricted list.
After selecting Wilson, Rangers general manager Jon Daniels called the Seattle Seahawks quarterback. Daniels says the quarterback expressed interest in coming to spring training with the team.
“We talk to our scouts about the makeup we want of our players and the work ethic it takes to win, and Russell Wilson has been an example of that,” Daniels said, via ESPN. “He has off-the-charts character and focus.
“We want to be respectful of where he’s at right now. I got a chance to talk to him, and he was excited. We wanted to welcome him to the organization and told him, ‘Don’t be insulted if you don’t hear from us again until you’re done playing because we don’t want to get in the way of what you’ve got going on.'”
Wilson hit .229 with five homers and 19 stolen bases (he also struck out 118 times) in Class A with Colorado in parts of the 2010 and 2011 seasons.
