Drew Henson - Baseball Career

Baseball Career

Henson was selected in the third round with the 97th overall selection in the 1998 Major League Baseball Draft. He signed a six year, $17 million contract to forgo the NFL and play exclusively for the Yankees. He began his minor league playing career with the Tampa Yankees, the Single-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. In his first year of playing, he batted .280 with 13 home runs. He began 2000 with Tampa, and after hitting .333, he was promoted to the AA Norwich Navigators and hit seven home runs before he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds with fellow prospects Jackson Melián and Ed Yarnall for Denny Neagle in 2000.

In 2001, he was traded back to the Yankees with Michael Coleman for Wily Mo Pena. However he struggled at the AAA level Columbus Clippers. He hit .234 over three seasons as the Clippers starting third baseman. His troubles were magnified by the fact that he was consistently booed by the hometown crowd because the was a former Michigan quarterback and he was playing in the home city of their arch rival Ohio State. Frustrated by his lack of progress and in need of a third baseman at the major league level, the Yankees traded for Aaron Boone at the 2003 trading deadline. Yankees GM Brian Cashman took this opportunity to release a harshly worded statement regarding Henson's status within the organization. "Drew Henson hasn't developed to the point where he is in consideration for the major-league side, By this move, we recognize there is a position of need for the organization and we can improve upon it now. The move for Aaron Boone speaks volumes as to where Drew Henson is in terms of his development at this time."

That status hasn't changed when Boone (who had hit a pennant clinching home run against the Boston Red Sox in the 2003 postseason) injured his knee in a pickup basketball game during the offseason. The injury would keep him out for the entire 2004 season. Told by the Yankees that he had no chance to replace Boone at third base, and an opportunity looming in the NFL, Henson announced that he was leaving the Yankees. He was unable to negotiate on the buyout of the $12 million still left on his original contract, forcing him to forgo all of it.

Henson received a token call up with the Yankees in 2002, playing in only three games. He struck out in his only at-bat. In 2003 he played in five games for New York, going one for eight and scoring two runs. He ended his brief major league career with only one hit in nine at bats (a .111 average) before announcing his retirement.