Thursday night, Los Angeles Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani smacked his fifth home run of the season during his team's win over the Minnesota Twins (LAA 4, MIN 4). Ohtani is hitting .354/.400/.677 with five homers and has thrown 26 1/3 innings with a 4.10 ERA and 32 strikeouts in his first few weeks as a big leaguer.

The 23-year-old Ohtani's ability to hit and pitch at a high level made him the top offseason target for pretty much every team this past winter. It's hard to do one thing well at the MLB level, hit or pitch. Ohtani is trying to do both, and so far it is a big success, much like his career in Japan. He's not a gimmick. He's an impact player.

Down in the minors, the Tampa Bay Rays are currently grooming baseball's next two-way sensation. Brendan McKay, the fourth overall selection in last year's amateur draft, is working as both a starting pitcher and first baseman/designated hitter with the team's Low Class-A affiliate in the Midwest League. He made his sixth start of the season Thursday night and, well:

Five days ago McKay, a left-handed hitter and thrower, set a new career with 5 RBI. He's been very good on both sides of the ball so far:

  • As hitter: .262/.483/.344 with one homer and more walks (26) than strikeouts (13) in 20 games
  • As pitcher: 1.09 ERA and 0.41 WHIP with 40 strikeouts and two walks in six starts and 24 2/3 innings

That is elite level performance at the plate and on the mound. And this isn't surprising, of course. The Rays didn't spring on the idea of being a two-way player on McKay after the draft. He played both ways at Louisville and won the Golden Spikes Award as college baseball's best player in 2017. Here are McKay's numbers from his final season at Louisville:

  • As hitter: .341/.457/.659 with 18 homers and more walks (45) than strikeouts (39) in 64 games
  • As pitcher: 2.56 ERA and 1.03 WHIP with 146 strikeouts and 35 walks in 17 starts and 109 innings

The Rays, a team that is always thinking outside the box and trying to gain an edge, selected McKay with the No. 4 pick and paid him a $7,007,500 signing bonus, the second largest since MLB's draft spending limits were put in place in 2012. The plan all along was to develop McKay as a two-way player and try to maximize that roster spot, because eight-man bullpens and three-man benches are becoming the norm. A starting pitcher who can also hit creates more roster flexibility.

MLB.com currently ranks the 22-year-old McKay as the 25th best prospect in baseball. Here's a snippet of their scouting report:

McKay operates with a 92-95 mph fastball that he commands well against hitters on both sides of the plate, though his velocity is prone to dipping as he works deeper into games. Both his curveball and cutter project to be above-average pitches, and he showed good feel for a changeup during his pro debut after using it sparingly at Louisville.

At the plate, McKay's smooth left-handed swing and mature all-fields approach led some evaluators to label him the best college bat in his class as a potential .300 hitter capable of hitting 20 homers per season. His lack of speed limits him to first base, but he proved a sound defender during his pro debut, and could become above average in time.

We've seen other teams attempt to convert players into two-way players. The San Diego Padres tried it with catcher Christian Bethancourt. The Los Angeles Dodgers tried it briefly with outfielder Brett Eibner. Bethancourt and Eibner came up through the minors as full-time position players, however. They tried to add pitching later and it didn't work. 

brendan-mckay.jpg
Brendan McKay could be baseball's next two-way star. Getty Images

In McKay's case -- and also Ohtani's -- he worked as a two-way player as an amateur and will continue being developed as a two-way player in the minors. He's working on both sides of the ball all the time. The Rays aren't having McKay focus on his hitting or pitching with a plan to reintroduce the other down the road. He's doing both now and will continue to do both going forward. 

Will it work? Who knows. Baseball is really hard. I hope it works because Ohtani is pretty much the coolest baseball player n Earth and having someone else like hi would be really fun. Having McKay work as a two-way player in the minors seems like the best way to develop such a player, rather than what Bethancourt and Eibner attempted to do, and that's make the conversion years into their careers.