Jays' Alford chooses baseball over football

Goodbye, gridiron. Hello, diamond. At least, that's what Anthony Alford's saying this week.

The Blue Jays prospect has told the Toronto organization that he will stop playing football and will instead focus on baseball full-time ahead of the upcoming 2015 season, according to multiple reports.

The Jays took Alford, who also had a football scholarship to the University of Southern Mississippi, in the third round (112th overall) back in the 2012 Draft when the talented Mississippi high school outfielder fell due to concerns that he was too committed to football. The two sides worked out a deal to allow the two-sport star to go after both pursuits -- baseball in the summer, football in the fall.

Alford appeared in nine games, five of them starts, at quarterback for the Golden Eagles in 2012. He threw for 664 yards with two touchdowns and ran for 329 more yards with six scores on the ground as a freshman. That same year, he was released from his scholarship following a November altercation that led to his arrest and charges of conspiracy to possess a weapon on school property and hindering prosecution. He soon transferred to the University of Mississippi and was forced to sit out the 2013 football season in accordance with NCAA transfer rules.

All the while, he made only a few appearances for the Blue Jays affiliate in the Gulf Coast League. In 11 games between 2012 and 2013, he went 8-for-40 (.200) with a homer, a triple, two doubles, three RBIs and six steals. Despite the limited playing time, his potential was high enough to earn a No. 8 ranking in the Toronto system at the end of the 2013 campaign.

The Jays bumped him up to Rookie-level Bluefield and Class A Lansing this past season. Over 14 games at those two levels, Alford had a .259/.333/.389 line with two homers, a double, five RBIs and five steals.

He had been a punt returner and backup safety this fall, his first season with the Rebels, but that time has come to an end. The Blue Jays have hopes that he can channel the athleticism that helped him excel in two sports back in high school into meeting what could be a relatively high ceiling, now that he's focused on baseball alone.

"I told him that we felt like if he committed to baseball full-time, he could move really fast," Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos told Toronto's National Post.