Before He Was a Pro Receiver, A.J. Brown Was Making Money Playing Baseball

As the minor league outfield and baserunning coordinator for the Padres in 2016, ’17 and ’18, Tony Tarasco spent the bulk of the baseball calendar on special assignments, roving from affiliate to affiliate. But there were two days out of each of those summers when he could count on his services being called back to Peoria, Ariz., the organization’s spring training and player development hub. “I always looked forward to that visit,” Tarasco says. “It was blocked off on my schedule: A.J. Brown is coming.”

These days Arthur Juan Brown is a punishing All-Pro NFL receiver whose blockbuster trade addition last April has lifted the Eagles’ offense to championship-level heights this season. But before that, he was a sweet-swinging outfielder and two-sport phenom from Starkville (Miss.) High School whose first taste of major league sports came when San Diego picked him as a 19th-round flier in the 2016 MLB draft, soon after he enrolled at the University of Mississippi to play SEC football as a four-star recruit and the state’s top wideout.

Brown had a unique minor-league deal with the Padres while playing football at Ole Miss.

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