One year after leaving football for baseball, Zach Hoffpauir is abandoning the stick-and-ball sport for a return to The Farm.
Stanford announced in a press release Tuesday that Hoffpauir has decided to leave professional baseball and return to the Cardinals football program. Hoffpauir has been placed on Major League Baseball’s voluntary retired list, which means he couldn’t return to the sport until 60 days after the season in which he retired.
Hoffpauir was a 22nd-round selection of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2015 MLB amateur draft. The school writes in its release that Hoffpauir “played for the Missoula Osprey (Rookie) of the Pioneer League and the Class-A short-season Hillsboro Hops of the Northwest League in 2015, batting .258 with three home runs and seven RBI in 17 total games.”
Prior to that, Hoffpauir played in 40 games for the football Cardinal as a defensive back. In 2014, his last season with the Cardinal before his brief flirtation with pro ball, he recorded a career-high 44 tackles, 25 of which were solo.
Hoffpauir was named honorable mention All-Pac-12 in both football and baseball for the 2014-15 season. This upcoming season will be his final year of eligibility.Been a while since I’ve put on a helmet.. This should be interesting!
— Zach Hoffpauir (@zach_hoffpauir) March 29, 2016
