Hoping to become a two-way player in Major League Baseball just like Shohei Ohtani, 18-year-old Shotaro Morii made the rare decision to bypass Japanese professional baseball entirely and agreed Wednesday to a minor league contract with the Athletics that includes a signing bonus of $1,510,500.

Top Japanese players traditionally have signed first with Nippon Professional Baseball clubs and established their professional credentials before moving to MLB as free agents or through the MLB-NPB posting process. Morii, a shortstop and right-handed pitcher, joined the A’s directly from high school on the first day of the 2025 signing period.

A left-handed hitter, Morii said he has been a two-way player since he was eight. He hit 45 home runs in three seasons while also pitching at Tokyo’s TOHO Junior and Senior High School. He will start at the lowest minor league level in Mesa, Arizona, with the Arizona Complex League Athletics.

“He’s a very talented baseball player with enough athleticism and mobility to play both shortstop and pitch,” assistant general manager Dan Feinstein said. “But beyond his physical ability, the thing that jumped out at us the most is his passion for the game and his unwavering desire to be one of the next great players from Japan.”

Morii already was in the U.S. He will head home for a bit before reporting to the A’s in March.

— Ronald Blum, The Associated Press