Baker Mayfield Shows Off Smooth Lefty Swing While Taking Batting Practice With The Yankess

Getty Image / Nic Antaya

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield enjoyed a career renaissance in the 2023 NFL season. The 2018 number-one overall pick had his career left for dead after he flamed out in Cleveland, only to redeem himself with the Bucs.

Early in his career, Baker Mayfield was seemingly in every other commercial, as he was considered possibly the league’s next big thing. That faded away after things went wrong in Cleveland, but that’s starting to come back now.

Look no further than New York Yankees Spring Training on Thursday. Prior to the club’s game against the Detroit Tigers in Tampa, Florida, the Yankees welcomed Baker Mayfield to take some batting practice.

My guess is, they may not have been so willing to do that a year ago, when Mayfield’s rep was much worse. Now that he’s back to being a lovable underdog, they’re more than welcome to have Baker at Spring Training.

As for his swing, Baker Mayfield has a great lefty stroke! Obviously, he’s played some baseball before. According to a USA Today article from 2018, it may at one time have been his best sport at one time.

As detailed by Baseball America, Mayfield was quite the standout infielder on a loaded Austin Lake Travis baseball team. Mayfield hit .338 with 22 doubles, 47 runs scored and 41 RBI across two varsity seasons with the Cavaliers, including a .364 junior season where he emerged as one of Lake Travis’ most dangerous hitters. How dangerous was he? Despite hitting a grand total of zero home runs in 2012, he eventually served as the team’s the cleanup hitter.

Mayfield, who was a first baseman in that junior season before playing at both shortstop and third base as a senior, even went so far as to tell the Oklahoma Athletics internal communications group that baseball was his first love. He said if he weren’t now so focused on becoming an elite quarterback, he might very well try out for the Texas Rangers.

Baseball may have sounded like a good option for Baker Mayfield this time last year. Now, he’s about to get a big contract in free agency, and his long-term future in the NFL once again looks good at 28-years-old.