Did Patrick Mahomes play baseball? Chiefs QB and former Texas Tech star was MLB draft pick

Not even seven full seasons into his NFL career, Patrick Mahomes has put together a resume with few, if any, peers in NFL history — especially for a player of his age.

At just 28 years old, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and former Texas Tech star has won two Super Bowls, two Super Bowl MVPs and two NFL MVPs, all while guiding his team to the AFC championship game in each of his six seasons as a starter.

On Sunday, he’ll attempt to add to that already-lengthy list of accolades by winning his third Super Bowl — and potentially his third Super Bowl MVP — when the Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

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Given what Mahomes has managed to accomplish before his 30th birthday and with all the highlight-reel-worthy plays he has delivered over the course of his young career, some weighty questions have already started to emerge — namely, is this the best quarterback in the history of the sport?

To think, Mahomes could have plausibly used his prodigious right arm to pursue a very different kind of athletic dream.

While Mahomes has achieved superstardom as a football player, he also played baseball growing up and into college. The son of an 11-year MLB veteran, Mahomes grew up around baseball and eventually played it himself, becoming good enough to ponder a professional future in it, not football.

Though he made the ultimately wise choice to pursue football exclusively, baseball is an inseparable facet of Mahomes’ athletic origin story.

Here’s everything you need to know about Patrick Mahomes baseball career:

Did Patrick Mahomes play baseball?

Born in September 1995, Mahomes quite literally grew up around baseball.

At the time he was born, Mahomes’ father, Patrick Mahomes Sr., was a reliever for the Minnesota Twins, with whom he debuted in 1992. He played six more seasons in the major leagues, splitting time between the Twins, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, Texas Rangers, Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Because of his father’s career, the younger Mahomes regularly got the chance to be around MLB clubhouses and was able to meet some of the most famous figures in the sport, from Derek Jeter to Alex Rodriguez.

“He grew up in the clubhouse, he was always around the game, and he was always the best player on his baseball team,” Mahomes’ father told the Los Angeles Times in 2023. “He was an unbelievable shortstop, he always led his team in hitting, and he threw 97 mph on the mound, so I always thought he was gonna be a baseball player.”

Though he never made it to the professional ranks like his father, Mahomes did follow in his footsteps by playing baseball. As a shortstop for his Tyler, Texas team, Mahomes played in the 2010 Junior League World Series.

In high school, he became a three-sport star, playing football, baseball and basketball. On the diamond, he displayed the strong arm that has helped define his NFL career: He was even able to top out in the 90s on his fastball. Against Mount Pleasant High School in East Texas, Mahomes threw a no-hitter with 16 strikeouts while going 3 for 4 from the plate and nearly hitting for the cycle.

He was a first-team Class 4A all-state selection by the Texas Sports Writers’ Association. Perfect Game made him an all-region and All-American honoree while ranking him the No. 133 right-handed pitcher and No. 389 overall high school prospect nationally.

Patrick Mahomes MLB draft

His latent physical traits and his high school achievements made Mahomes an intriguing prospect for MLB franchises.

By the time the 2014 MLB Draft came around, Mahomes had already signed to play football at Texas Tech. His commitment to the Red Raiders gave the impression that he was likely to pursue football, which perhaps caused him to fall in the draft. Detroit Tigers scout Tim Grieve, who scouted Mahomes coming out of high school, told FanSided in 2023 that had the future Chiefs quarterback focused solely on baseball, he could have graded out as a third- or fourth-round pick.

“He’s the type of prospect where you say, ‘Let’s get our uniform on this guy and figure the rest out later,’” Grieve said. “With any of these kids, it’s always a dream.”

The Tigers did just that, selecting Mahomes in the 37th round with the draft’s No. 1,120 overall selection. Interestingly enough, he was taken nine rounds after another Texas-born quarterback: Johnny Manziel, who had won the Heisman Trophy at Texas A&M in 2012 and had been selected two months earlier by the Cleveland Browns in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft.

Still, there was some worry at Texas Tech that Mahomes might back out of his letter of intent and, like his father, play baseball.

“When you see him in person, he's a big, impressive kid, and I think he's going to get bigger and stronger and faster,” Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury said in 2014. “With his dad having that history of being a professional player, it does, but we'll see how it shakes out. I know he wants to come to college, but you never know how that money's going to be."

Ultimately, he stuck with the Red Raiders. Mahomes' status as a late-round pick meant he was unlikely to get the kind of lucrative contract that would make it worthwhile to bypass a promising college football career. At Texas Tech, he’d also have the unusual opportunity to step on campus and earn at least the No. 2 quarterback position after the departures of Baker Mayfield, Michael Brewer and Clayton Nicholas after the 2013 season had left Davis Webb as the only quarterback remaining on the roster.

Mahomes spent much of the 2014 season as Webb’s backup and by the start of the 2015 season, he was the team’s starter.

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Did Patrick Mahomes play baseball at Texas Tech?

Mahomes played one season for the Red Raiders’ baseball team, recording two at-bats as a pinch hitter and making an appearance as a relief pitcher.

In January 2016, in advance of the baseball season and after leading the FBS in total offense in his first season as a starting quarterback, Mahomes announced he would skip baseball to focus exclusively on football.

"Not many college athletes have the privilege to play multiple sports at this level, so I'd like to thank [Texas Tech] coach [Tim] Tadlock, his staff as well as my teammates on the baseball team for allowing me that opportunity,” Mahomes said in a statement. “Moving forward, after speaking with my family following the bowl game, I feel it is in my best interest to concentrate solely on football and academics this spring. I know great things await the baseball program this season and I will be rooting them on every chance I get."

Though that decision ultimately marked the end of his baseball career, Mahomes’ background in the sport is still evident. Some of the side-armed throws and shovel passes that have helped make him famous as a quarterback were things he utilized as a shortstop.

In that way, baseball has never really left him.

"I'm a baseball player at heart," Mahomes told Chiefs.com in 2022. "That's just who I am. I'm playing shortstop back there."

Patrick Mahomes baseball highlights

Below are some limited highlights of Mahomes’ baseball career at Whitehouse High School outside Tyler.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Patrick Mahomes baseball career, revisited: Chiefs QB was MLB draft pick