He has decided to retire from Major League Baseball after seven seasons with the Texas Rangers and Cincinnati Reds. Instead, the 26-year-old is pursuing college football, joining South Alabama as a walk-on quarterback.
South Alabama head coach Major Applewhite confirmed Thompson’s addition to the team following a viral video on social media earlier this week.
Thompson, who will turn 27 in June, was selected 26th overall in the 2017 MLB Draft out of McGill-Toolen Catholic High School in Mobile, Alabama. Despite choosing baseball, he had received multiple offers to play college football.
Standing 6-foot-2 and weighing 197 pounds, Thompson was a three-star recruit in the 2017 football class. As a senior, he threw for 3,173 yards and 38 touchdowns, leading the Yellow Jackets to the Class 7A state championship game alongside NFL wide receiver Jalen Tolbert.
Programs like Troy, Memphis, Ole Miss, Western Kentucky, and UCF were interested in him for football. At one point, Thompson committed to play college baseball at Auburn and later Alabama, but his MLB first-round draft status kept him from enrolling at either school.
Bubba Thompson went from football to baseball back to football!
Thompson worked his way through the minor leagues from 2017 to 2022 before finally earning his MLB debut with the Texas Rangers on August 4, 2022. In his two seasons with the team, he hit .241 with 13 RBIs across 241 plate appearances in 92 games.
That marked the highlight of Thompson’s MLB career. Over the next two seasons, with the Reds and Royals, his batting average declined significantly. Last season, Cincinnati demoted him to Double-A.
Now stepping away from baseball, Bubba Thompson is shifting gears. Earlier this week, he returned to his hometown and shared a video from the University of South Alabama, where he was seen throwing a football at the Jaguars’ indoor practice facility.
South Alabama coach Kane Wommack later confirmed to AL.com that Thompson will join the team as a walk-on for offseason workouts and spring practice. While it’s a trial run given the team already has three quarterbacks—Gio Lopez, Bishop Davenport, and Jared Hollins—Thompson could become a depth option depending on his performance in the coming months.
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