BRADENTON, Fla. -- Drew Henson is back with the only
baseball team that can lure him away from the NFL. Now he'll have
to decide whether he wants to be a quarterback or a third baseman.
|  | | Quarterback Drew Henson has one year of eligibility left at Michigan. |
The Cincinnati Reds traded Henson back to the New York Yankees
on Wednesday along with outfielder Michael Coleman in exchange for
outfielder Wily Mo Pena.
The cost-conscious Reds also got $1.9 million from the Yankees
to cover the bulk of Pena's contract. He's still owed $2.2 million
from the deal he signed with New York in 1999.
Henson came to the Reds last July as part of the deal for
left-hander Denny Neagle. The Yankees reluctantly traded Henson,
one of their top prospects, after he refused to commit to playing
baseball.
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ESPN.com analysis
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Mel Kiper on Henson's NFL prospects:
"If Drew Henson decides to take the money and play baseball full time with the Yankees, the Michigan quarterback would be giving up on the potential of being the first overall pick in the 2002 NFL draft to the fledgling Houston Texans."
Kiper on Henson
John Sickels on his baseball future:
"Henson is an excellent power prospect, but does have a few warts. In 600
career at-bats, he has 23 homers and 34 doubles, along with 54 walks and 187
strikeouts."
Sickels on Henson, Coleman, Pena
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"Our intent is to convince him to play baseball, that's always
been our intent when we drafted him," Yankees general manager
Brian Cashman said. "That has not changed. There is no guarantee
we'll be able to do so. There's a risk here, one we're willing to
assume."
Henson can play at Michigan for one more year and would be a top
pick in the NFL draft the following April. The Reds knew when they
got Henson that he might never play for them.
"Drew and I had some conversations," Reds general manager Jim
Bowden said. "He was very clear on his position that to play
baseball, you'd have to match what he would get in football. His
agent told us at the beginning of spring training that we'd have
about a 20 percent chance that we would be able to sign him."
The Yankees have a better chance. They can afford to pay him the
type of money he would get in an NFL signing bonus, and they remain
his preferred baseball team.
"I'm very happy to be back with the New York Yankees," Henson
said in a statement. "It was very exciting to have been drafted in
1998 by this team with such a rich history and I feel very much the
same today."
Sources told ESPN.com's Jayson Stark that there is no firm commitment from Henson to give up his football career – either at Michigan or, eventually, in the NFL.
However, Henson has been privately pushing to be dealt back to the Yankees ever since he was traded to the Reds last July in the Denny Neagle deal. This trade would seem to indicate he will make a more serious attempt to pursue a baseball career. Agent Casey Close said he
would talk to the Yankees.
"At the very most, we'll hopefully convince him to play
baseball." Cashman said. "At the very least, we'll have to play
the same game we've done the past few years ... which is wait it
out. He's got options."
The Yankees would like to sign Henson to a multiyear contract
that would have him give up football, a baseball official told The
Associated Press on condition he not be identified, confirming a
report in Tuesday's editions of The Record of Bergen County, N.J.
According to the newspaper, Henson is believed to be seeking $4 million to $5 million for three or four years. ESPN.com's Bob Klapisch reports the figure may be as high as $15 million over three years.
"I think it's good in the sense that he's comfortable with the
organization. lt's the organization that signed him," Close said.
"We've really not had any discussions along that nature. After the physicals, we'll start having
discussions."
The agreement was reached Tuesday and completed after all of the
players passed physicals Wednesday. Henson began spring football
practice at Michigan last weekend, and had his physical in Tampa on
Wednesday, the Wolverines' day off, and worked out at the Yankees'
minor league complex.
The Yankees drafted Henson out of high school in 1998, but
couldn't get him to commit to baseball. He led Michigan to a 9-3
record and No. 11 ranking last season.
Henson had planned to keep his baseball options open by playing
in the Reds' minor leagues this summer, then returning for his
senior year at Michigan.
Despite missing the first 3 1/2 games with a broken foot, Henson
completed 61.6 percent of his passes for 2,146 yards with 18
touchdowns and only four interceptions last season.
Henson hit .266 with nine homers in 308 at-bats last season,
mostly in Double-A. He struggled after the trade, batting only .172
in 16 games for the Reds' Double-A Chattanooga team.
The deal increases the likelihood that Deion Sanders, another
football-baseball player, will be added to the Reds' roster after
May 1, when he's eligible to be called up.
Sanders pinch ran and scored a run Wednesday in an 8-5 loss to
Pittsburgh in Bradenton. He said before the game that he empathized
with Henson's predicament: having to pick one sport over another.
"I know there's a lot of people saying, 'You need to be this,
you need to be that,' and a majority of those people have not tried
either sport, let alone two simultaneously," said Sanders, who's
also a cornerback for the Washington Redskins. "I'd just tell him
to go with his heart.
"I think you should let your game decide what you want to do.
One game is going to jump out maybe a little more than the other
game, and you'll see a little more vividly which way you should
lean."
Pena, 19, has struggled in the minors after getting a $3.7
million, five-year contract from the Yankees in 1999. The deal
included a $2.44 million signing bonus and base salaries of
$260,000 this season, $280,000 in 2002 and $300,000 in 2003.
Pena hit .234 with 17 homers and 64 RBI in 488 at-bats in Class
A and Rookie ball the past two seasons.
Coleman, an outfielder acquired in the offseason from Boston for
Chris Stynes, missed most of last season with a broken wrist, but
is healthy this season. He is a .267 career hitter with 87 homers
and 318 RBI in 626 minor league games.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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