Sam Kulasingam found creative ways to pass the time during the MLB Draft.
Not knowing if his name would be called on Monday, Tuesday or at all, the recent Air Force graduate helped his mother build a small couch at their North Carolina home and relaxed with some reading.
It wasn’t until the Kansas City Royals contacted Kulasingam’s adviser at Octagon — the same agency that represented Bobby Witt Jr. as he signed a long-term extension with the team earlier this year — and expressed their intent to select him in the 13th or 14th rounds that Kulasingam finally turned on the MLB.com draft tracker.
“It seems like a lifetime is going by between each pick,” Kulasingam said as he switched on the tracker near the end of the 12th round.
Not every team follows through with their draft-day declarations, but the Royals did. They took Kulasingam with the second pick in the 13th round.
“(My name) popped up,” Kulasingam said. “I was like, ‘Oh sweet, that’s a surreal feeling.’”
Kulasingam will travel to the Royals’ complex in Surprise, Ariz., on Thursday. If all goes well with physicals, he intends to sign. He will then work at the team’s complex for a time before potentially earning an assignment to a minor league affiliate, with the Low-A Columbia (S.C.) Fireflies or High-A Quad City (Iowa) River Bandits the probable candidates.
Despite the Royals’ success (winning 52 games before the All-Star Break after winning 56 all of last season), their farm system is among the thinnest in baseball, ranked No. 28 entering 2024 by MLB Pipeline.
On top of that, they recently traded No. 2 prospect Cayden Wallace, a third baseman, and they drafted only five position players this week.
All this to say that Kulasingam, drafted as a third baseman, is entering a situation where he could climb unencumbered, particularly if his bat plays at the pro level as it did in college. At Air Force, he twice won the Tony Gwynn Mountain West Player of the Year Award and posted a career slash line of .377/.470/.598. In 963 plate appearances, he had 305 hits (among his multiple Air Force records), 118 walks, 115 extra-base hits and 102 strikeouts.
“He understands the strike zone like nobody else,” Air Force coach Mike Kazlausky said. “Versatile, can play anywhere.”
Defensive versatility figures to be his biggest asset with the glove. Kulasingam played first base, third base, second base and outfield with the Falcons. The Royals worked him out all over the infield and outfield.
He knows that his lack of top-end speed makes him unlikely to play center field, and his quickness doesn’t fit the profile at shortstop. His arm probably doesn’t play in right field. But he could fill any of those spots in a pinch and provides roster flexibility with the ability play anywhere else.
“Talking to them, they’re not going to say, ‘Hey, you have to play this one position,’” Kulasingam said. “They want me to be versatile; they want me to try different things, move around. Just basically try to carry as many gloves in my bag as I can.
“If I can hit in pro ball, I think teams will value the ability to be plug-and-play.”
Had Kulasingam signed with the Toronto Blue Jays when they drafted him in the 17th round, he would have been required to finish his senior season but without eligibility to play baseball.
Now, the path is more simple. He graduated in June but filed paperwork to delay commissioning under a soon-to-expire policy that allows athletes to defer active-duty service while playing professional sports. He had earned a pilot training spot that the Air Force is likely to hold for roughly two years. Otherwise, he will remain in baseball and commission whenever his career ends, accepting whatever job the military branch assigns.
“At that point (the end of the two-year window), if I’m still playing and still progressing, I’ll have a big decision to make,” he said. “Obviously it would be really hard for me to give up my dream of playing professional baseball, so that’s where I’ll be leaning, no doubt. And then, if I lose my pilot slot that would stink, because flying would be really cool. But I’d go do whatever job Air Force gave me and I’m sure I’d enjoy it, and at that point if there was any way I could go fly a little later in my career I’d be fine doing that.”
Kulasingam has never had the ability to simply concentrate on baseball. He heard stories from former teammate Paul Skenes about the differences when Skenes transferred to Louisiana State University. The opportunity for more sleep to recover is huge. So, too, is the time afforded to work on specific parts of the game. If Kulasingam was struggling to hit a slider, he might have time to take a round or two in the cage against the pitch before hustling off to the next thing as a cadet. Now, he can take his time in ironing out the kinks.
He doesn’t know how this might impact him as a player, but he’s excited to see.
He also finishes a stressful 12 months of dealing with the MLB Draft with no regrets. There were stressful times, like when he decided to turn down Toronto’s offer, struggling with a nagging ankle bruise and then waiting out the process over the past few days, but it played out exactly as he envisioned.
The Falcons won their first Mountain West regular-season title. The senior class that included Kulasingam, Skenes (for two years) and Jay Thomason (the all-time Mountain West home run leader and a 17th-round pick of the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday). And the senior class already reconvened for the first of what promises to be many special occasions, as pitcher Doyle Gerhring was married in late June.
“At the end of the day, I got to have an amazing senior season with the boys,” Kulasingam said. “And that’s what I’ll always cherish. Those memories, you can’t replace.”
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