Amir Garrett may end up going pro in baseball

Earlier today, we put together a post on why St. John's fans should keep their expectations in check this season.

The focus of our post was on the fact that the Johnnies, while bringing in a talented recruiting class, will still be in rebuilding mode while those freshmen acclimate to the collegiate level. We weren't specualting about whether or not that recruiting class would be intact by the time October 15th rolls around.

For starters, there is concern over Maurice Harkless. Back in 2010, the NCAA instituted the "package deal" rule. If a college team is going to hire someone from the high school or AAU ranks, there needs to be a two-year window between the signing and a player he coached enrolling at the school. Harkless played in a couple of AAU tournaments with the NY Gauchos, a team for which new St. John's assistant Moe Hicks served in an administrative capacity.

Even more concerning, however, is the fact that Amir Garrett now appears to be seriously considering becoming a professional baseball player.

Garrett, a 6'5" lefty, was a highly-regarded pitching prospect during his younger days, but last summer transferred to Findlay Prep in Las Vegas to pursue basketball. But according to the article that SI's Luke Winn penned on Garrett, baseball is his first true love. And thanks to some exhaustive training that he has gone through over the last two months, Garrett is going to be picked high in baseball's amateur draft, which starts today. He's hitting 96 on the radar gun, but he hasn't pitched competitively since last June, when he walked seven batters in 4 1/3 innings at a high school all-star camp.

Garrett has options. Depending on where he gets picked, Garrett has a shot of getting a seven-figure signing bonus. If the money he is guaranteed in baseball isn't enough, he can always 'fall back' on that scholarship offer to St. John's, where he can also play on the school's baseball team. According to Winn's article, 'enough' will be $1.5 million.

The thing that is great -- and confusing -- about his decision is that Garrett can take the money to become a professional baseball player and still be eligible to play college hoops. If he is more serious about baseball, he can do what CJ Henry did -- Henry, Xavier's younger brother, signed with the Yankees out of high school, but the Yankees were forced to pay for Henry's education when he did end up going to college. If Garrett ends up deciding that basketball is where his future lies, he can either play baseball with the St. John's team in the spring or spend his summers cashing paychecks in the minors.

Garrett has plenty of options.

His best course of action right now -- don't limit them. There's nothing wrong with being a two-sport athlete.