No baseball for the former dual-sport star.
Interesting note here from Sports Illustrated's Peter King in what I found to be a very good Monday column:
"You may recall when I wrote about Winston—the Florida State baseball team’s closer last season—at the combine in my Feb. 23 column that I asked him whether he would ever want to play both sports as a professional. "I can’t speak on that," he said. "It has always been my dream, but I’m just playing football right now."
That section of the column alarmed Licht, and that Monday he texted Winston and then spoke with him about it. He told Winston that wasn’t something the Bucs would be likely to accept if he was their pick. Winston said he understood, but loved baseball so much that he was being honest about it with me.
Fast forward to last week. Licht and agents Greg Genske and Kenny Felder negotiated the Winston contract so he’d have the business of football out of the way and he could focus solely on football, starting with the Bucs’ minicamp that gets underway Thursday in Tampa. In the contract, a Bucs’ source said, is a clause prohibiting Winston from playing professional baseball during the life of his Tampa Bay deal."
Winston was not a good college hitter, but was an excellent college pitcher as FSU's closer.. Here are his stats from college
2014: Appeared in 24 games making five starts in the field with two starts in left field and three as the Seminole designated hitter…also made 24 relief appearances as he finished the year with a 1-0 record and a 1.08 ERA with 31 strikeouts in 33.1 innings…recorded a team-high seven saves which tied for the eighth most in the ACC…opponents hit just .154 against the right hander as he allowed just four earned runs, seven walks and 18 hit all year…had an RBI double with a run scored against USF (3/5) while also pitching a scoreless inning to pick-up the save…tied a career-high drawing two walks as a designated hitter against Florida (4/8) while pitching 1.1 scoreless innings in relief…had two separate five game streaks of scoreless relief appearances (2/15-3/5 and 4/8-4/22) while totaling 18 total scoreless and 11 hitless appearances…struck out a career high seven while throwing three innings of scoreless relief in an extra inning victory against NC State (3/15)…threw a career high 4.2 relief innings against Wake Forest (4/19) earning a win while scattering two hits and one walk, while striking out two…threw 2.2 innings of scoreless ball in both the ACC Tournament and NCAA Tallahassee Regional…worked a scoreless ninth inning against North Carolina (5/21) in the opening game of the ACC Tournament and followed with 1.2 shutout innings against Virginia (5/24) as he struck out two in picking up the save…closed the year with two strikeouts in 2.2 innings against Alabama (5/31) in the NCAA Tallahassee Regional.2013: Appeared in 41 games making 32 starts in the field…started two games in left field and 20 in right field…also started as the DH in 10 other games…also made 17 relief appearances during his freshman year finishing with a 1-2 record and a 3.00 ERA with 21 strikeouts in 27 innings pitched…against Stetson (5/7), went 3-for-5 with four RBI, two runs scored, a double and a walk in a 13-5 Seminole win…posted season-highs in hits and RBI against the Hatters…tallied another RBI and a run scored the next day against Stetson, while also pitching a season-high 3.0 innings and striking out a season-high four batters…also worked 3.0 innings in relief with four strikeouts in his first collegiate appearance on the mound for the Seminoles on February 17 against Rhode Island…tied a season-high with 3.0 scoreless and hitless innings in relief at Miami (4/6)…saved his only two games in back-to-back appearances in game two of a doubleheader against USF (2/24) and vs. Villanova (3/3)…notched his only win of the season on the mound vs. Stetson (3/19) when he allowed no base runners over two innings in the 5-3 win…at the plate, finished the season hitting .235 with nine RBI…also had a .377 on base percentage and a .345 slugging percentage…tied a season-high with three hits at NC State (5/11)…went 2-for-5 with two doubles at Jacksonville on April 23 while pitching an inning and helping preserve the 9-0 shutout for the Seminoles…scored a season-high three runs vs. Wake Forest on April 27.
Realistically, no NFL team was going to let its QB pitch in major league baseball, as pithing is an unnatural motion that leads to arm injuries to the shoulder and elbow at an incredibly high rate. That Winston signed the contract the day after the draft likely indicates that he knew this would be the case.