The powerful prospect has the potential to be the next MLB star. All the Royals need to do is give him the chance.
You won’t find baseball’s hottest hitter in the Major Leagues, for now.
Meet Jac Caglianone, the sixth overall pick in last year’s amateur draft by the Kansas City Royals out of the University of Florida. A year ago, as a junior in Gainesville, the 6-foot-5, 250-pound lefty smacked 35 home runs in 66 games at first base while striking out just 26 times. After a 29-game stint last season in Single-A, Caglianone was brought up to Double-A to start this season and has been on fire ever since.
In 38 games over six weeks at Northwest Arkansas, Caglianone hit .322 with nine home runs and 43 RBIs before being promoted to Triple-A Omaha on May 20. In eight games, five of his nine hits have been dingers to go with 10 RBIs, all in a four-day span from last Thursday to Sunday in Salt Lake City. Just look at this absurd display of power:
MLB.com’s 10th-ranked Minor League prospect has a 70 power grade on the 20-80 baseball scouting scale, projected as an elite, top-five type player in that particular category. The hulking, muscular 22-year-old Caglianone is ready right now to be an impact big league hitter for Kansas City, with the potential to be a superstar franchise cornerstone for the next decade-plus alongside perennial All-Star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. The Athletics already fast-tracked Nick Kurtz, the first baseman drafted fourth overall in last year’s draft, to the big leagues on April 23, putting up five homers and an above-average OPS before hitting the injured list with a strained left hip flexor he sustained over the weekend.
If Kurtz can put up solidly consistent MLB numbers less than a year after being drafted, so can Caglianone. Here’s why Jac’s immediate MLB promotion should be a no-brainer.
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As mentioned, Caglianone has 14 homers and 53 RBIs in 46 games so far this season to go with a .326 batting average and a .986 OPS. As a team in 56 games, Kansas City has 33 home runs, dead last in baseball by a significant margin. Only four teams have a worse OPS (.662), which is all the more frustrating considering the Royals are 30-27 so far and a legitimate playoff contender despite scoring by far the fewest runs among teams with a winning record.
To forgo his senior season at Florida, KC signed Caglianone to a $7.5 million signing bonus upon being drafted. But if called up, he would only be paid a pro-rated amount of the $760,000 minimum salary for pre-arbitration players, a bargain if Jac comes anywhere near approximating his current offensive prowess. That minimum applies to a player’s first three pre-arbitration seasons.
A first baseman by trade, Caglianone has been practicing right field in preparation, with first base and DH in Kansas City largely accounted for in Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Pérez, who’ve combined for 12 of those 33 team homers. Royals who have played right field so far this season include Drew Waters, Hunter Renfroe, Cavan Biggio, Mark Canha, MJ Melendez, Tyler Tolbert, and John Rave, a who’s who of “who’s that?”
Royals right fielders this season have batted a combined .179 with a .482 OPS, a total of one home run and six RBIs, and a -1.3 WAR. That‘s what’s blocking Caglianone’s path to the majors right now.
On Monday, Royals General Manager J.J. Piccolo told reporters that while Caglianone’s red-hot start at Triple-A was impressive, “the best way to break any player into the major leagues is to try to bring them up when the team is hot.”
While that makes sense in the sense that calling someone up while a team is struggling puts too much pressure on a young player, Caglianone’s power would help solve the Royals’ biggest weakness, and his ability to do so in right field would fill the club’s most offensively anemic position.
With his imposing frame and prodigious power, Caglianone has the look and production of a future MLB home run champion. While he could cut down on his strikeouts and prove he can play right field at the MLB level, Kansas City has the opportunity to breathe life into its offense and ride the on- and off-field momentum Caglianone has. Baseball is ready to promote the hell out of its players with aura and star power, and Jac has it.
Caglianone has the potential and ability to be the next MLB superstar. All the Kansas City Royals have to do is give him the chance.
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