SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Broncos fans are no doubt certain Russell Wilson will look great in orange, but he might have looked good in Rockies purple, too.
“He was a good kid and a good athlete and I thought he had a chance,” Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt said Tuesday after news broke that the star quarterback had been shipped from the Seattle Seahawks to the Broncos in a blockbuster trade.
Schmidt was the Rockies’ chief of scouting in 2010 when the club selected Wilson in the fourth round of the draft out of North Carolina State. Wilson, a second baseman, played two seasons of minor league baseball in the Rockies organization. He played for Class A Short-Season Tri-City and low-A Asheville before going back to play college football at Wisconsin in the fall of 2011.
In 315 minor league at-bats, Wilson slashed .229/.354/.356 with five home runs and 26 RBIs.
“He was OK at second (base), but the bat was going to take a while,” Schmidt said.
Fred Ocasio, Wilson’s first professional manager at Tri-City, was impressed by Wilson’s baseball acumen.
“He had the tools,” said Oscio, who will manage the Rockies Arizona Complex League team this season. “He had a good arm and he was good at turning double plays. And he had bat speed. If you have bat speed you have a chance to hit and you will eventually get it right.”
Oscio said Wilson was extremely focused.
“The thing that stood out to me about Russell was his work ethic,” Oscio said. “He was always trying to get information from the staff and anybody. He was always the first one at the ballpark and the last one to leave the ballpark.”
Asked what stood out about Wilson’s personality, Schmidt said: “He’s very dynamic and very passionate.”
Wilson’s 113 victories through his first 10 seasons are the most in NFL history (regular season and playoffs), ahead of former Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning (112). Yet Wilson’s true love was baseball.
In a 2020 interview on the Barstool Sports “Pardon My Take” podcast, Wilson said that baseball was “my love growing up,” adding that he believed he had a future in Major League Baseball.
“I always feel like baseball was actually my best sport,” Wilson said during the podcast.
Wilson played 106 games of college baseball across three seasons for N.C. State, hitting .282 with five home runs. The right-hander also made 10 appearances as a pitcher in his final season at North Carolina State. He struck out eight batters and allowed eight earned runs in 12 1/3 innings.
Rockies scout Jay Matthews got to know Wilson when Wilson attended Collegiate School in Richmond, Virginia, where he played both football and basketball. Wilson hit .467 as a junior, according to Rivals.com.
Matthews and fellow scout Danny Montgomery, who’s now the Rockies vice president and assistant GM of scouting, were both aware that Wilson was interested in both football and baseball. Still, they thought it was worth taking a chance on drafting Wilson.
“I’m happy to have ‘Russ’ and his family back in the Mile High City,” Montgomery said Tuesday. “His championship pedigree will only make the Broncos stronger in years to come.”
Related Articles
- Can Rockies follow Diamondbacks’ or Rangers’ path to postseason glory?
- Rockies add Anthony Molina, a right-handed pitcher, via Rule 5 Draft
- 📬 Rockies Mailbag: Trading prospects for pitching, grading the roster
- Todd Helton, on Hall of Fame’s doorstep, is “putting in my two cents” on Rockies at winter meetings
- Rockies land No. 3 overall pick in MLB Draft Lottery
In the spring of 2012 Wilson called former Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd to inform him that he was choosing football over baseball and was entering the NFL draft.
“I took a big risk to leave playing baseball and go back and play football, especially at a completely different school,” Wilson told The New York Times.
Wilson was drafted in the third round (75th overall) by the Seahawks.
During the 2013 Rule 5 Draft, the Texas Rangers picked Wilson in the minor-league portion, adding him to their organization. In 2018, they traded his rights to the Yankees.
