Bubba Starling Will Choose Between Playing QB at Nebraska or Playing For His Hometown Royals

So now, he has the magical name (Bubba Starling sounds more distinct than Derek), and competing offers to play big time football at Nebraska or professional baseball for his hometown team. Which will he choose? Well, the fact that he can go and play football for Nebraska (as well as baseball for the Cornhuskers) certainly will make him some money in the negotiations with the Royals, as he doesn’t have to take less money to sign. He also has Scott Boras as an agent, so you know that he isn’t settling for anything less than top dollar.

The Royals knew this, though, and the recent history in the draft suggest that they have mostly left behind their penny pinching ways of the early part of this decade, and now realize that even if they don’t have the money to spend on major league veteran free agents, they need to compete in the draft. They paid both Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas, two other top Scott Boras clients and high school hitters, excellent money to sign, including over 6 million for current rookie Hosmer three years ago.

The issue for Starling will be how much and is that enough to give up football. With 6 million plus on the table, there’s no way he chooses to be a slave, right? My assessment of Starling is that he is a great athlete who can dominate at the quarterback position in high school, and will still be a very good athletic quarterback in college. He has the height, and we’ve seen that you can sometimes get picked 8th overall even if you are not the best passer if you are athletic, so I won’t say he has no chance to be in the NFL. I just think he more fits the mode of great college QB who may not translate to the next level.

Baseball projects as his best sport, and the Royals agreed with such a high pick. Of course, he doesn’t have to give up baseball, and as top overall pick Gerrit Cole and others have shown, you can pass on signing and still get drafted highly three years later. So, attending Nebraska isn’t the end of baseball, though there is certainly risk involved, and there’s no certainty you still get drafted as highly. Let’s not discount other aspects of being an 18 year old either. You can go play A ball in little towns in the Midwest League for a year or two, where only people that are hard core are following your every move, or you can be the Big Man on Campus, with college girls all around. How much is that worth? I guess it depends on the person.

Then there’s the pressure of being a local product. Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star has already written “[the Royals] may have just drafted the franchise’s most important player since George Brett.” Sorry, Sam, but that is hype. I think it’s cool that they drafted a local kid, and it shows you don’t have to be from California or Florida or Texas to be a top pick. But let’s not go overboard. If Eric Hosmer is a star, I could care less where he went to high school four years earlier. If Bubba Starling is just a solid major league player in five years, that’s quite alright.

My guess is he ultimately signs with the Royals, but probably not until the deadline of August 15th. The Nebraska reporting date for football is July 10th, and I think it is likely that he reports to Lincoln, regardless of the ultimate decision. I don’t think they want to forego that possibility if no contract is signed yet and lose any leverage as negotiations continue. In other words, don’t assume that just because he reports to Nebraska that he’s not signing to play baseball.

Either way, it wouldn’t suck to be Bubba Starling about now.

[photo via Getty]