Heard the phrase, "There's no two ways about it?" Jac Caglianone is looking to prove there is.

His past season with the Florida Gators showed why. With 35 home runs, he set the school's single-season and career home run record -- all while touching triple digits on the mound as their Sunday starting pitcher.

Caglianone's r¨¦sum¨¦ made him the runaway winner of the 2024 John Olerud Award for college baseball's best two-way player. But adding a layer of intrigue to his historic college career -- and rise to becoming the No. 6 overall pick by the Royals in the 2024 Draft -- is how close it came to not happening at all.

If not for a few cruel twists of fate, the Florida native may not have made it to Gainesville and almost certainly would not have been a two-way player.

Coming out of H.B. Plant High School in Tampa, Caglianone was mostly viewed by scouts -- and even Florida's staff -- as purely a pitcher. He had aspirations to hit as well, but at the end of the day, 6-foot-5 lefties who throw 98 mph don't just grow on trees.

Although he didn't pitch much as a high school sophomore and missed most of his junior season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Caglianone developed as a notable prospect -- No. 175 in 2021's Draft rankings -- and a possible mid-round pick. But he hit a major speed bump when he learned, mere weeks before the Draft, that he'd need to undergo Tommy John surgery.

The news was devastating. A setback for his pro career, or at a minimum, his development on the mound. But life has a funny way of working out sometimes, and it could hardly have worked out better for Caglianone. And what's more, his lack of reps relative to other prospects his age illustrates how much more room he may yet have to grow.

"It was really just like the biggest blessing in disguise," Caglianone said. "I wouldn't trade these past two-and-a-half years for anything -- these guys, this coaching staff and all that. It's definitely helped me mature mentally and physically."

Arriving at Florida's campus, where Caglianone followed in the footsteps of fellow Plant alumni such as Pete Alonso and Preston Tucker, allowed him to make a reset of sorts.

While taking online classes, he knocked out his schoolwork in the morning before hitting the gym for two to three hours in the afternoon. On days he didn't have class, he'd show up at 6:15 a.m. and get to workouts before the athletic trainer. In doing so, he bulked up from about 230 pounds to 250.

And when he couldn't pitch while recovering from Tommy John, that gave him a chance to hit, something his dad and coaches at Plant knew he had in his toolkit ever since he was hitting balls over the lights as a sophomore.

"They wrote Jac off as a hitter in high school," Plant baseball coach Dennis Braun said. "A lot of people don't know that. Some of that still bothers me today. They come watch him pitch, and when he got down off the mound, they wouldn't even watch his last at-bat, which I didn't understand that. And then a lot of scouts tell me how much better he got and I go, 'That's fine, but he was that same guy. He could hit the ball as far as anybody here, including Pete Alonso, and you guys missed it.'"

Florida's staff may have been more in on him as a pitcher in high school, but they didn't miss it the second time around. Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan remembers watching a freshman Caglianone take batting practice during Florida's series against Vanderbilt in mid-April and feeling that "it's just different" coming off his bat. This on a team featuring upcoming first-round picks and Top 100 prospects Wyatt Langford (Rangers) and Sterlin Thompson (Rockies).

Caglianone had been planning to redshirt during the 2022 season, but O'Sullivan didn't think there was a chance the lefty would stay four seasons with the Gators -- let alone five -- before going pro. So he asked Caglianone to consider returning as a designated hitter for the final months of the season.

Caglianone accepted the challenge, and two weeks later, he made his first start against No. 1-ranked Tennessee. Despite not seeing live pitching in more than a year, he crushed his first of 75 collegiate homers off the batter's eye in his second plate appearance of the game. With a thunderous stomp on home, he announced his arrival as a true power-hitting prospect.

Caglianone impressed in that partial freshman campaign -- going deep seven times and slashing .289/.339/.548 in 28 games -- but the Gators truly got to test the two-way experiment in the fall of 2022. O'Sullivan had coached an Olerud Award winner before -- Brian Johnson (2012) -- but no player had the combined arm strength and brute strength of this southpaw.

That rare combination of skills immediately caught teammates' eyes, including those of right-hander Hurston Waldrep, who had just transferred from Southern Miss.

"I watched his first bullpen and I'm like, 'Dude, this guy is something else,'" Waldrep said. "I had no clue he was a hitter. I watched him throw a bullpen and he's throwing in our indoor facility at Florida and sitting there throwing bullets; breaking balls are sharp, changeups really good. I'm like, 'This guy's something else. Like, where did he come from?' And then I watched him hit BP one day and I was like, 'This dude really can do it all.' Like he's hitting balls over the scoreboard in BP."

Caglianone's sophomore season proved to be a walking highlight reel. He struck out nine batters across 6 2/3 scoreless innings in his first start and finished second on the team with a 4.34 ERA while striking out 87 in 74 2/3 frames. And, of course, there was the power. He set a BBCOR-era record with 33 long balls and became a Golden Spikes Award finalist after running up a 1.126 OPS.

That his junior season was even better almost defies belief. In 66 games, he launched 35 homers and slashed .419/.544/.875. He walked (58) more than he struck out (26), even if you remove the intentional passes (31). As a sign of how feared he was, down the stretch, opponents routinely put him on with runners on first and second rather than give him a chance to do more damage.

And why would you not be afraid? In 2024, 42.9 percent of his fly balls went over fences, more than 10 points higher than any qualified Major Leaguer this year. For much of the season, that hovered around 50 percent, a literal coin flip's chance of a ball in the air leaving the yard. And you can't even beat him with a tough lefty -- he slugged 1.055 with 19 homers in 100 plate appearances against fellow southpaws, according to Synergy.

Caglianone tied an NCAA record by homering in nine straight games, and the seventh homer of that streak measured 516 feet. Of his 28 long balls this season with official measurements, 10 had an exit velocity of at least 110 mph, while six traveled 455 feet or more.

"He's just done nothing but rake," said Alonso, who has periodically worked out with Caglianone in the offseason. "If you look at his stuff as a pitcher, he's got wipeout stuff. He's got strikeout stuff. He's going to be able to pitch. But he has the potential to be the next Shohei Ohtani."

Comparisons to Ohtani -- a once-in-a-generation player -- are unfair. Nobody has done what the two-time MVP has in decades for good reason. Caglianone has struggled with control (6.4 walks per nine in college), but his raw stuff is apparent with a 70-grade fastball and three average-or-better secondary pitches. And between high school and college, he only reached the 100-inning threshold this season. So there could be even more growth, if given a chance.

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Could Caglianone become a fireballing reliever who comes in after hitting a home run? Does he have time to develop as a starter when his bat may quickly be ready for the upper Minors and Majors?

Time will tell on that, but everyone who has been around Caglianone -- high school and college, teammates and coaches -- all say he will be a special player at the next level no matter where he plays.

"He definitely reminds me of Wyatt Langford," O'Sullivan said. "I've had very few players like this. When they go to the plate, something special might happen again. And it's just weird. I was watching Wyatt the other night when he hit for the cycle ¡­ you almost knew he was gonna hit a home run his last at-bat. It's just different. We've been very fortunate to have some really good talented players, and obviously Jac and Wyatt are unbelievable players, but they have this knack of just, you know something's gonna happen."