Photo by Ed Delany, MMN
With Tim Tebow playing his his first year in Triple-A, and Kyler Murray opting for the NFL a year after being the ninth overall pick in the MLB draft, there has been a lot of focus on players who play both baseball and football. With Bradley Marquez returning to the Mets organization, there may be renewed focus.
Initially, the Mets drafted Marquez in the 16th round of the 2011 draft. Similar to Murray, Marquez maintained an interest in playing football. Marquez would play two seasons for Kingsport hitting .254/.293/.351 with six doubles, one triple, one homer, and 11 RBI in 36 games.
Marquez would also play receiver for Texas Tech, and that decision cost him $250,000 of his $350,000 signing bonus. Prior to the start of the 2014 minor league season, he would announce he was giving up baseball to focus on football. Marquez would play two season in the NFL before spending the 2017 season on the Lions practice squad before being waived by the team prior to the start of the 2018 season.
With no NFL job lined up, Marquez would return to the Mets organization, and yesterday was his first game back on the field. He batted eighth and played left field, and he would deliver his first hit in his first game in nearly six years:
Bradley Marquez! 2,081 days after his last professional baseball game, the former NFL wide receiver doubles in his season debut with Columbia. #Mets pic.twitter.com/XkcByAmgW4
— Jacob Resnick (@Jacob_Resnick) April 9, 2019
On the play, you could see the type of athleticism which not only led to the Mets drafting Marquez, and why they welcomed him back to the organization. In addition to playing wide receiver and center field in the Mets organization, in high school, he was a state finalist in the long jump.
While Marquez was a story because of his comeback, Dedniel Nunez was one because of how dominant he was on the mound.
With Thomas Szapucki being restricted to just one inning in his first start back from Tommy John, Nunez would come into the game, and he would pitch 5.2 innings in relief picking up the win in Columbia’s 7-4 win over the Rome Braves.
— Jacob Resnick (@Jacob_Resnick) April 9, 2019
Nunez was blowing the ball past batters with a mid 90s fastball and a good breaking ball. Of his 81 pitches, he threw 63 of them for strikes, and as a result, he struck out 10 batters and walked none.
Between Nunez and Marquez, we saw the Fireflies squad put a lot of skill on the field yesterday, and the end result was the team winning their second game of the season. When you consider this squad also features some of the youngest and highest end talent in the entire Mets farm system, it makes the Fireflies team one to follow closely during the 2019 season .
