Kansas City Royals open to Patrick Mahomes’ idea of joining them at spring training

In a Time magazine cover story about the 100 most influential people, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes mentioned his love of baseball.

Mahomes was a star baseball player at Whitehouse High School in Texas and thought he might follow in his father’s footsteps and one day pitch in the major leagues.

Instead, he pursued football for his career. And it’s safe to say it’s worked out well for him.

But he still loves to play baseball. He actually took the diamond at Kauffman Stadium last year, but it was for the Big Slick celebrity softball game. He’d like to try baseball again at some point.

“I’ve talked to the Royals,” Mahomes told Time. “And if I can maybe go out to a spring training, I’m not opposed to that. I’ll get it approved by the Chiefs and everything like that. But maybe one of these years I go out there and see what I got. See if I can still hit the ball or pitch or whatever that is. Maybe not in the games, but I can at least practice with them.”

Time’s Sean Gregory asked Chiefs coach Andy Reid about Mahomes’ idea and he wasn’t exactly thrilled. But in true Reid style, he quipped: “He’d have to take me as a manager.”

I asked Royals general manager J.J. Picollo about Mahomes’ wish, and the team is on board with the idea.

“We’d love to have him come. He’s welcome anytime,” Picollo said. Then he added with a laugh: “He’s part owner of the team, he can do whatever he wants.”

That’s true. Mahomes is a minority Royals owner. But Picollo said there is one other potential stumbling block: the Chiefs’ success.

“It would be great. It’d be fun to have him around,” Picollo said. “I know that a couple of our guys have relationships with him. But if you wanted to come down, we’d love to have him come down.

“Problem is when we’re in spring training, he’s out celebrating Super Bowls. The timing doesn’t always match up. It would be neat, though. It would be neat to have him. We would love that.”