Listed at 6-foot-6 and 216 pounds, Alabama wide receiver Tyrell Shavers is hard to miss. Entering his redshirt sophomore season with the Crimson Tide football team, Shavers appeared in all 15 games in 2018, but has yet to catch his first collegiate pass or record any stats. Still, when you're a consensus four-star recruit and one of the best high school prospects in Texas, there's little chance Shavers can stay hidden for long.
While playing college football was always his calling, it wasn't the only sport he excelled at. Playing for Lewisville High School (TX), balancing both football and baseball was hard, so Shavers focused on using his big frame to earn his way onto Nick Saban's team. Now that he's established himself, the left-handed pitcher who could throw his fastball in the high 80s in high school is back on the diamond once again.
Listed as an outfielder on the Alabama Crimson Tide's official baseball roster, Shavers has been working out with the team leading up to Alabama's opening weekend three-game home series against Presbyterian at Sewell-Thomas Stadium to start their 2019 NCAA college baseball season off.
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When you play on the same football team as NFL-caliber talent like Henry Ruggs, Jaylen Waddle, DeVonta Smith and All-American wideout Jerry Jeudy, it's pretty hard to get on the football field. But with Alabama's baseball team needing help, getting on the diamond for Shavers would give a huge boost in head coach Brad Bohannon's second season.
"Excited to have Tyrell. A really pleasant young man, obviously really gifted athletically. Tyrell played a lot of baseball growing up, and we really appreciate Coach (Nick) Saban being gracious and letting us have him. We're going to take a look at him for a couple weeks and kind of re-evaluate it, but we really enjoyed working with him so far."
— Brad Bohannon, via 247Sports
Last year, the Tide's season finished 27-29 and were 8-22 in the SEC, which was good enough for dead last in the conference. With last year's College World Series runner-up, the Arkansas Razorbacks, plus another seven SEC teams ranked in the preseason NCAA college baseball standings that include the top two teams — Vanderbilt and LSU — it's another uphill battle for the Crimson Tide.
Having a naturally gifted athlete like Shavers in the dugout can only help the cause, but that's if Saban lets his big wide receiver miss some football workouts in favor of spring baseball to truly become a two-sport athlete in Tuscaloosa.
