Jac Caglianone aka The Next Shohei Ohtani Is Getting His First Bowman Chrome Card
The 6th pick in this past year's MLB draft will be getting his First Bowman card in the 2024 Bowman Draft set. Jac Caglianone, who played at Florida, was a two-way player similar to Shohei Ohtani. He competed against Paul Skenes and LSU in the 2023 College World Series while representing Florida.
Caglianone is tied for 8th all-time on the NCAA career home run list, hitting 75 homers during his three years at Florida. In the Arizona Fall League, he has primarily been hitting, which suggests that hitting might be his focus in his professional career.
That being said, he will have two Bowman cards in this new product.
𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗦𝗧 𝗟𝗢𝗢𝗞: 2-way player Jac Caglianone has his first MLB cards in 2024 Bowman Draft.
— Topps (@Topps) November 30, 2024
Like other 2-way players before him, Jac has both hitting & pitching autograph variations. pic.twitter.com/BaHA4579QJ
One card features him hitting, while the other showcases him pitching. Short prints and image variations have always been popular, but over the past few years, we’ve seen a significant increase in these types of cards from Topps.
There is one key difference: his hitting card will carry the First Bowman logo, while his pitching card will be an image variation without it.
It’s hard not to draw comparisons to the most successful two-way player in history, Shohei Ohtani. This release mirrors what Topps did with Ohtani’s Bowmans. Since Ohtani entered the league ready to play, he had both pitching and hitting Bowman cards, each featuring the rookie logo. The pitching card is also a paper Bowman card and the hitting is the chrome version.
Topps does tending to make this a bit confusing for no reason, so although the pitching card is a paper Bowman card, he also has a Superfractor 1/1 chrome pitching card that is considered one of his best cards of all time.
Found! 2018 Bowman Chrome Shohei Ohtani Superfractor Autograph https://t.co/NRURmeNTbU pic.twitter.com/vbqMNiqZtd
— Beckett Collectibles (@beckettcollect) June 9, 2018
However, there’s a difference with Caglianone’s cards. Only his hitting card will have the First Bowman logo. Players like Travis Bazzana, the number one overall pick, will have a similar setup, with a First Bowman base card and an image variation without the logo. For Caglianone, the pitching card serves as the variation.
The First Bowman Chrome card is statistically the most important card for most baseball players. For instance, Mike Trout’s 1/1 Bowman Superfractor sold for $3.8 million in 2020, a record-breaking sale at the time. While it’s unrealistic to expect Caglianone’s card to reach such heights, if you’re looking to invest in his cards, those in Bowman Draft will likely top the list as his most valuable.
Adam has been a sports content creator since 2016, initially focusing on creating sports-related graphics for his Instagram page. In 2018, he transitioned to writing and podcasting about sports cards. Since then, he has worked both independently and with companies within the industry, producing podcasts, videos, and written content on sports cards.