Surprise, Ariz. ? Emil Brown is drawing comparisons to Raul Ibanez at the Kansas City Royals’ spring-training camp.

Ibanez was a minor-league invite to Royals spring training in 2001. He had spent nine years with the Seattle Mariners, mostly in the minors, with scant success in the majors. He hit .229 with two home runs and 15 RBIs in 2000 with the Mariners, who released him.

Ibanez became a solid big-league player, hitting .294 with 42 home runs and 193 RBIs in 2002-03 with Kansas City. He returned to Seattle last year, hitting .304.

The Royals believe Brown could be another late bloomer.

Brown, like Ibanez, is an outfielder who signed a minor-league contract with the Royals with an invite to camp. He, like Ibanez, has floundered in the majors, a .200 career average in 404 at-bats in 209 games over five years.

Brown has played 828 games in the minors during 11 seasons. Having played in 14 different cities since he was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in 1994, he said he had lost count of his different stops.

This season, he could be calling Kansas City home. Brown is having an electrifying camp and defying the odds to slug his way onto the Royals’ roster. He entered Wednesday leading the Cactus League with an .848 slugging percentage, second with a .455 batting average, four home runs and 14 RBIs and third with a .525 on-base percentage.

Ibanez was 30 when he had his breakthrough season in 2002. Brown turned 30 in December.

“Better late than never,” Brown said.

Of Ibanez, Brown said, “I know who he is.

“I’ve always been around, but nobody knows about me.”

But the baseball world soon might know plenty about Brown.

Brown grew up in Chicago during the Michael Jordan era, when basketball was king. He played AAU basketball, but did not play baseball until his junior year at Harlan High.

“I was really raw,” Brown said. “I was never the best player on any of the teams I played on. I probably had more ability, but as far as complete player I was just raw.”

The Pittsburgh Pirates liked Brown’s raw talent and chose him in the 1996 Rule 5 draft from the A’s. Brown was 22 and not nearly ready for the majors, but the Pirates were forced to carry him on the big-league roster the entire 1997 season to keep him in the organization. Brown called it a wasted year “as far as development.

“I could have been in Double-A playing, instead of just sitting around,” he said. “I don’t think I helped them any when I was there. It was nice to be in the big leagues, but it’s never fun when you’re not contributing in any kind of way. You want to do something.”

Brown hit .179 in 66 games and had only 95 at-bats for the Pirates as a rookie, then spent the next four years bouncing between the majors and minors. He was traded to San Diego on July 10, 2001, and went 1-for-14 in 13 games, his last action in the majors.

Since then Brown has played in the Tampa Bay, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Houston organizations, plus 28 games last year with Campeche in the Mexican League.

He is competing with Aaron Guiel and Abraham Nunez for the final Royals’ outfield slot.

“I don’t know what the opportunity is here,” Brown said. “The only thing I can control is what I do. If what I do creates an opportunity for me, then that is good for myself.”

Brown appears to be winning the battle for that outfield vacancy.

“He’s been making a case since we started playing games,” Royals manager Tony Pena said. “The more he plays, he just continues to swing the bat (well).”