Royals' Jac Caglianone: Blisters ball at 120.9 mph
Rotowire
Caglianone, who is slashing .346/.406/.615 through six games with Double-A Northwest Arkansas this season, hit an opposite-field single at 120.9 mph off the bat Thursday, Chris Clegg of The Dynasty Dugout reports.
As Clegg notes, the hardest-hit ball the Royals have ever had in the Statcast era was 118 mph off the bat of Eric Hosmer in 2017. Further, Caglianone's two homers this season have both traveled more than 460 feet, per Pete Grathoff of The Kansas City Star. While it's a stretch to think the Royals would jump their top prospect over Triple-A and straight the big-league level, that's not unheard of by any stretch. Kansas City is tied for dead last in the majors this season with only six home runs as a team.
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Royals' Jac Caglianone: Cut from big-league camp
Rotowire
The Royals reassigned Caglianone to minor-league camp Monday.
Caglianone never had a real chance to make the Royals' Opening Day roster, but he nonetheless turned heads in camp, putting up a 1.871 OPS with three home runs over 13 Cactus League tilts. The 22-year-old is likely to begin the season at Double-A Northwest Arkansas and could push to debut in 2025 if he's able to make enough contact.
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Royals' Jac Caglianone: Shows off power
Rotowire
Caglianone hit a 435-foot home run with a 115.4 mph exit velocity in Sunday's Grapefruit League game against the White Sox, Anne Rogers of MLB.com reports.
The No. 6 overall pick in the 2024 First-Year Player Draft, Caglianone has at least 70-grade raw power and is in his first big-league camp. The Royals coaches were very complimentary of Caglianone, who is working on not swinging as hard as he can every time, and letting his natural raw power do the work while chasing less. If he can develop even just a 50-grade hit tool, Caglianone could annually be among the league leaders in home runs. He is likely to open the year at Double-A, but from there, he'll climb as quickly and as far as his talent takes him.
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Royals' Jac Caglianone: Earns spring training invite
Rotowire
The Royals have extended Caglianone an invitation to big-league camp during spring training, Anne Rogers of MLB.com reports.
Caglianone got in 29 games at High-A Quad Cities after being taken with the sixth overall pick of the First-Year Player Draft in 2024, but it's fairly customary for prospects of his stature to be invited to big-league camp, even if he has no chance of making the Opening Day roster. Also of note is that Caglianone -- who was a two-way player in college at Florida -- will not do any pitching in 2025, instead focusing only on hitting and playing first base.
