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.
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.
Yankees minor-leaguer and Michigan quarterback Drew Henson play third base during a spring training workout in this February 2000 photo. The Yankees have re-acquired Henson from Cincinnati in a trade. Henson, a likely first-round NFL draft pick in 2002, has said he would keep his baseball options open by playing in the minor leagues this summer.
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.
"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."
The Yankees would like to sign Henson to a multiyear contract that would have him give up football. 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 agreement was reached Tuesday and completed after all of the players passed physicals on 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 31/2 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."
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