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Thursday might be an off-day for the Dodgers.<\/p>\n
But for their most intriguing recent draft pick, it\u2019s also the opening day of a different kind of season.<\/p>\n
In the 17th round of last month\u2019s MLB draft, the Dodgers took a flier on University of Missouri pitcher Sam Horn, a 6-foot-4 right-hander with a big fastball, a promising slider and an athletic, projectable build.<\/p>\n
Like most late-round prospects hoping to become a diamond in the rough, Horn came with questions. He pitched just 15 innings in his college career after undergoing Tommy John surgery as a sophomore. His limited body of work led to a wide range of scouting opinions.<\/p>\n
In Horn\u2019s case, however, the biggest unknowns had nothing to do with his potential as a pitcher.<\/p>\n
Because, starting Thursday night, he will also be under center as quarterback for Missouri\u2019s football team.<\/p>\n
Horn is not only a two-sport athlete, but someone still undecided on whether his future will be on a mound or the gridiron. As a quarterback, he was a four-star recruit in Missouri\u2019s 2022 signing class. And this fall, he has been locked in a battle with Penn State transfer Beau Pribula, jockeying for first-string signal-caller duties at an SEC program coming off a 10-win season.<\/p>\n
When Missouri opens its 2025 football schedule Thursday night against Central Arkansas, Pribula will play the first half, and Horn will play the second half. As for the rest of the season, Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz has yet to hand either player all the keys to the offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think both quarterbacks have done an excellent job of doing the things that we\u2019ve asked them to do, and there wasn\u2019t enough separation that I felt like there was a clear-cut starter,\u201d Drinkwitz told reporters this week. \u201cAnd so the next-best evaluation is in a live football game to see how guys respond, not only to preparation and a game plan, but also respond to a crowd, also respond to being tackled and being hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a QB battle that Dodgers officials have followed with fascination throughout Missouri\u2019s fall camp.<\/p>\n
Already, the club has signed Horn to a baseball contract with an almost $500,000 signing bonus (well above the norm for the 525th overall pick).<\/p>\n
The question now is whether he ever ends up playing for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re pleasantly hoping he does,\u201d Dodgers vice president of baseball operations Billy Gasparino said this week. \u201cWe think there\u2019s a whole window of opportunity to get him much better, and quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once upon a time, the Dodgers viewed Horn as one of college baseball\u2019s better pitching prospects. Even in a limited sample size as a freshman in 2023, Gasparino said the team evaluated him as having potential future first-round talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a tremendous athlete,\u201d said Gasparino, the longtime point man for the Dodgers\u2019 draft operations. \u201cHe has really good arm action. I think that part was very elite.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time Horn actually became draft-eligible this summer, though, uncertainties about his future made his scouting process unique.<\/p>\n
All along, Horn signaled to MLB teams that he wanted to play football this fall. As a redshirt junior, he will have another season of eligibility in football next year as well. Gasparino said the narrative around Horn, who is originally from Lawrenceville, Ga., is that \u201cbaseball is his first love.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut,\u201d Gasparino added, \u201che definitely seemed split on what he wanted to do going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is not the first recent example of the Dodgers drafting a power-conference college quarterback.<\/p>\n
Two years ago, they used their final 20th-round selection in the 2023 draft on then-Oregon State quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, a former two-sport star at St. John Bosco. Uiagalelei, however, never signed with the team. As a highly touted five-star talent with NFL aspirations, he never made the switch to baseball either, his draft rights with the Dodgers lapsing after he transferred to Florida State for the 2024 football season.<\/p>\n
Horn\u2019s situation appears to be different. Unlike Uiagalelei (who never actually pitched collegiately), he spent the last three years on Missouri\u2019s baseball team. And if he doesn\u2019t win the starting quarterback job with the Tigers football squad this fall, his odds of reporting to the Dodgers next spring figure to be much more realistic.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why, as Missouri\u2019s QB battle has unfolded this preseason, Gasparino scoured Missouri recruiting site message boards and local news outlets, looking for any indication of which way the program was leaning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe coach is going to give nothing,\u201d Gasparino said jokingly. \u201cSo you kind of have to go on the message boards, and to the local writers, to figure out, \u2018All right, who is winning? What is going on?\u2019 It\u2019s been kind of a hard read.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leading up to the draft, Horn\u2019s situation also required extra scouting legwork. The Dodgers dusted off his old freshman year and high school evaluations, after he pitched just 10 \u2154 innings in Missouri\u2019s spring baseball season coming off his Tommy John procedure. They also reached out to NFL scouting departments and college football recruiters, \u201cjust to figure out how talented he was at football,\u201d Gasparino said.<\/p>\n
The Dodgers do have downside protection if Horn ultimately decides to stick with the football, with Gasparino noting that \u201cto actually get his signing bonus, he has to come to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
But in the meantime, they\u2019ll be keeping a close eye on Missouri\u2019s football season \u2014 starting with Thursday night\u2019s opener in which Horn is slated to see the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely gonna be watching,\u201d Gasparino said. \u201cI mean, I guess first, it\u2019s like, don\u2019t get hurt. But also just hoping that the right answer becomes very clear on what he should do sport-wise \u2026 Of course, we\u2019d be disappointed if it\u2019s not baseball. But would hate another year of in-between.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Dodgers last month drafted and signed Sam Horn, who’s at Missouri competing for the starting quarterback job this season. Which sport will he gravitate to?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":85099,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n