Jac Caglianone’s name already linked to some of Royals’ best power hitters in Statcast era
When general manager J.J. Picollo met with the media at Royals Rally earlier this month, I asked him about the plan for top prospect Jac Caglianone.
The Royals selected Caglianone with the sixth overall pick in last year’s MLB Draft and he was a two-way player at Florida.
Picollo said the Royals want him to focus on hitting and noted the rarity of Caglianone being with the big-league team at spring training in Surprise, Arizona.
“He’s the first player since (2009 pick) Aaron Crow to be invited to major-league camp in his first year. So I think that alone speaks to our confidence in him and how he can impact this team maybe sooner than some other guys we’ve had in past years,” Picollo said. “But if we really want him to impact the major-league team, we’ve got to simplify things for him. And to try to pitch and try to hit in your first major-league spring training, your first full season, just didn’t make a lot of sense to us. We think a lot of his ability as a pitcher, but we like him as a hitter a lot more.”
Fans on Sunday got an idea of why the Royals have such faith in Caglianone. He hit his first home run at spring training and it was an absolute bomb.
The exit velocity on the home run was 115.4 mph. Ian Kraft, the Royals’ assistant director of media relations, said that would have been the third hardest-hit home run in franchise history during the Statcast era.
The top two: Jorge Soler (115.7 MPH on Sept. 4, 2019) and Kendrys Morales (115.6 MPH on June 30, 2016).
This story was originally published February 24, 2025 at 10:22 AM.
