PHILADELPHIA — Phillies manager Rob Thomson got a firsthand look at where he might bat Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts and wide receiver A.J. Brown in his lineup.
No, Bryce Harper shouldn’t be worried about his spot at No. 3 in the lineup after the two Eagles stars took batting practice with the Phillies on Tuesday before the Phillies’ game against the Detroit Tigers.
Then again, maybe he should be.
That’s because Brown especially, along with Hurts, put on a show. And let’s just say that Brown, who was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 19th round in 2016, can still hit the ball out of the ballpark.
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“Boy, could (Brown) really swing the bat,” Thomson told Audacy’s SportsRadio 94 WIP on Wednesday morning. “He hit four or five balls into the seats. Jalen is more of a contact, line drive, ground-ball guy. So he’d be kind of my lead-off guy, and A.J. would be more in the three-four slot because he’s got that power and he hits the ball all over the place.”
The two were taking batting practice in preparation for DeVonta Smith’s charity softball game Saturday in Allentown’s Coca-Cola Park, the home of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate.
Brown was a baseball prodigy growing up in Mississippi, calling the sport his first love. Brown likely would have been drafted much earlier had he not made it clear that he was going to Ole Miss to play football.
Brown still has a love for baseball, and when he was at a contract impasse with the Tennessee Titans in Feb. 2022, he was considering going to spring training with the Padres.
He told Delaware Online/The News Journal last fall that he was “dead serious” about attending Padres’ spring training. As it turned out, the Titans traded Brown to the Eagles a few months later on draft night. Brown then signed a four-year extension worth as much as $100 million, thus ending any desire to return to baseball.
“(The Padres) had reached out to me,” Brown said back then about playing baseball. “They were about to invite me to spring training. They were just waiting on an answer from me.”
Brown said he didn’t take the offer because the Padres wanted him to focus only on baseball and not become a two-sport star like Bo Jackson back in the 1980s or Deion Sanders in the 1990s.
Either way, the Eagles are glad the way it worked out as Brown set a franchise record last season with 1,496 receiving yards.
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Hurts, of course, was the catalyst as he finished with 3,701 yards passing, was the MVP runner-up and led the Eagles to the Super Bowl, where he threw for 304 yards and ran for 70 more in the Eagles’ 38-35 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Hurts wasn’t nearly as accomplished as a baseball player as Brown. But there are still instances where his baseball-playing ability is evident, like when he’s sliding to avoid a hit.
Hurts admitted last week that he learned how to slide in baseball, and that translates to the football field.
“I played baseball as a kid, so I always had a nice slide,” Hurts said last year. “It kind of started at Alabama. Coach would tell me to get down, so I got down. I slid in high school (football) as well.”
As for throwing a baseball, Thomson gave Audacy’s SportsRadio 94WIP this review about Hurts.
“Jalen, just starting to play catch with him, he was struggling because throwing a baseball is a little bit different than throwing a football,” he said. “But because of the athleticism, he adjusted so quickly. And by the time we were done playing catch, he was hitting me in the chest with every throw.”
Brown and the Eagles receivers can certainly relate.
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
