College World Series features baseball's other two-way star
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Florida is one win away from reaching the College World Series final, and two-way superstar Jac Caglianone is a big reason why.
State of play: Nicknamed "Jactani" for his similarities to the Los Angeles Angels' Shohei Ohtani, the 20-year-old sophomore and Golden Spikes finalist (baseball's Heisman Trophy) leads the nation with a school-record 31 homers and has a fastball that regularly touches 99 mph.
- Hitting: .330 batting average/.397 on-base percentage/.746 slugging percentage with 84 runs batted in and those 31 bombs in 300 plate appearances.
- Pitching: 7-3 in 16 starts (69 innings pitched) with a 3.78 ERA, 81 strikeouts and 49 walks.
What to watch: The 6-foot-5, 245-pound lefty is pitching for Florida today, his first start in three weeks as the Gators have largely used a two-man postseason rotation composed of projected 2023 draft picks.
The backdrop: The Tampa native was recruited as a pitcher but blew out his elbow a week before getting to campus in August 2021.
- While he was recovering from Tommy John surgery, coaches noticed his power at the plate and decided to slot him into the lineup. He responded by hitting seven home runs with an .887 OPS in 28 games as a designated hitter.
- This year was all systems go for the ascendant star who'd envisioned playing both ways at the highest level ever since Ohtani's Major League Baseball debut in 2018.
What he's saying: "I just thought it was the coolest thing ever," he told ESPN when asked about watching Ohtani's rookie year. "I'd always done both, and it was something that I planned to do in college."
- Though Ohtani is currently one-of-one, that won't stop Caglianone (pronounced cag-lee-own) from trying to join him.
- "I have no interest in stopping … unless a team flat-out tells me down the road that I've got to pick one."
Reality check: That's easier said than done, and it's not as if Caglianone is the only one who's tried. In fact, there was one just last year.
- Paul Skenes, a fellow Golden Spikes finalist, played both ways superbly for two years at Air Force before transferring to LSU this season and giving up hitting. Now he's a consensus top-three pick.
- The last college player to try it in the pros was Brendan McKay, taken fourth overall out of Louisville in 2017 by the Tampa Bay Rays. He pitched 49 forgettable innings in 2019, homered once in 10 at-bats and has been mostly hurt since.
- History says Caglianone will eventually choose — or more likely be forced into — one or the other, but perhaps Ohtani's emergence has changed the calculus for what teams are willing to try.
Looking ahead: Caglianone won't be draft-eligible until 2024, so he'll return to Gainesville next year as the first baseman and No. 1 starter. But first, he'll hope to lead Florida to its second CWS title.
