Jack Slightom was a two-sport problem for opposing coaches all last year — the starting quarterback at Lyons Township High School in Illinois by day, a right-hander touching triple digits on the radar gun by spring. The Royals decided they didn't want to find out what happens if he keeps doing both, and they wrote a check big enough to make sure he doesn't.
Jim Callis broke the signing news, laying out the bonus, the slot value and the scouting profile in one shot.
Kansas City took Slightom 56th overall in this year's draft, a pick that carries a slot value of $1,721,700. Instead of signing at or near that number, the Royals gave him $3 million — nearly $1.3 million over slot, according to Callis. That's the kind of number teams reserve for prospects they think are getting seriously underpaid by where they actually landed on draft boards.
There's a reason for the gap. Slightom wasn't just a baseball prospect — he was Lyons Township's varsity quarterback and team captain, leading the Lions to an 8-3 season and a trip to the second round of the Illinois Class 8A playoffs. He was also committed to play college baseball at Cincinnati. Any team drafting him had to outbid the pull of a scholarship offer and a football helmet, not just a slot number.
On the mound is where the money talk really starts. Slightom sat in the low-to-mid 90s throughout his senior year but reportedly touched 98 mph in at least one outing, the kind of spike that gets scouts recalculating a prospect's ceiling on the spot. Callis notes the fastball comes with carry and run, and that the slider and changeup are already showing promise — a three-pitch mix that's rare for a prep arm, let alone one who was also taking snaps on Friday nights.
Evaluators weren't unanimous on just how special that ceiling is. Draft rankings had him anywhere from the high-50s to the high-80s overall, which is exactly the kind of spread that shows up when a guy's athleticism outpaces his pitching résumé — teams betting on projection paid up, teams wanting a finished product passed. The Royals clearly landed in the projection camp.
Giving up a shot at Cincinnati football-adjacent recruiting buzz and a big-time college baseball program isn't nothing, but $3 million tends to smooth that decision over fast. For an org still rebuilding its pitching pipeline, locking up a projectable prep arm with a 98-mph gear and starter traits is worth the overpay if even one of those secondary pitches keeps developing.
Now it's just about development. Slightom heads into the Royals' system as one of the more athletic, high-variance arms in their farm, and how he looks throwing every fifth day instead of once a week as a two-way high schooler will say a lot about whether this bonus was a bargain or a stretch.