Kiefer Sutherland opens up on MLB prospect named Jack Bauer

Federal agent Jack Bauer has chimed in on MLB draft prospect Jack Bauer. 

Kiefer Sutherland, the actor who played the counter-terrorism operative named Jack Bauer in the hit TV show “24,” confirmed he has been following along with the flame-throwing baseball player of his character’s namesake, who wears the number 24 in honor of the show.

Sutherland is a fan. 

“To see someone excel at that level at such a young age, and the fact that he has the last name Bauer and his parents chose to call him Jack…It’s kind of fun for me,” Sutherland told MLB.com. “Like I said, I’m not the most avid baseball fan, but now I’ve got something to root for.”

Bauer — the pitcher — is MLB.com’s 44th-ranked draft prospect who can spin a 103 mph fastball, making him the hardest-throwing high school baseball player of all time on record. 

A 6-foot-3, 190-pound left-hander, the 18-year-old Bauer is a product of Lincoln-Way East High School in Frankfort, Ill.

He’s widely expected to be selected during this year’s draft, which starts on Sunday and continues into next Monday.

Once drafted, Bauer will have the choice to sign with whichever organization selects him or play college baseball at Mississippi State, where he is committed.

Bauer said on the MLB Pipeline podcast that he still hasn’t seen the show, but he wanted to wear No. 24 to “play into the number a little bit.”

“Sometime in the future, I do plan on watching it,” Bauer said. “I’ve heard great things.”

Hearing that, Sutherland responded: “I have a feeling he’s not gonna find much time very soon. “When he gets a look at it later in his 30s, I hope he enjoys it.”

Sutherland, for his part, said he isn’t a huge baseball fan now, but that he grew up closely following the Montreal Expos because his father, the late legendary actor Donald Sutherland, was a massive fan.

“He was a superfan,” Sutherland said. “To the degree, he was doing a movie in China back in the ’80s. A movie about a Canadian doctor during the second World War called ‘Bethune.’ And the only thing he had in his contract was that he had to be given the time off for the two or three hours the Expos played, no matter what the time difference was.”

Now, the Canadian actor has all the reason in the world to follow in his dad’s footsteps and get back into the game.