Royals' Shohei Ohtani-Like Experiment Gets Historic Deal

The Kansas City Royals are hoping to produce a Shohei Ohtani clone -- or as close to it as possible -- with their 2024 first-round draft pick Jac Caglianone.

Caglianone may not be on the same level of two-way prospect as Ohtani was years ago, but the Royals still paid him quite a pretty penny. Kansas City gave Caglianone a cool $7.5 million deal, which was $286,200 over the slot value of the 6th overall pick in the draft.

The nearly $300,000 bonus was the most ever awarded to a player drafted in the first or compensatory rounds.

In his three years at Florida, Caglianone showed the hitting prowess to be a powerful big-league slugger. The 21-year-old batted .419 with 35 home runs and an absurd OPS of 1.419 across 66 games last season.

Caglianone's batting average was third in all of college baseball, while his homer tally was second only to Georgia's Charlie Condon (37).

However, Caglianone didn't exactly look Ohtani-esque on the mound. In 34 career starts, the Royals prospect had an ERA of 4.55 with 170 strikeouts and 16 home runs allowed over 148.1 innings pitched.

The Royals have committed to allowing Caglianone to pursue a two-way career. Ohtani's two-way success in the majors likely had a hand in Kansas City -- and the MLB at-large -- being more open to the idea.