Jac Caglianone hit 4 home runs vs. Cardinals. These two were really exceptional
The ball hadn’t even traveled past the infield by the time Cardinals starter Michael McGreevy hung his head in defeat.
He knew.
Because that guy hit it. And because it came off the bat considerably harder than McGreevy had thrown it.
Royals second-year outfielder Jac Caglianone ripped a line drive 110.5 miles per hour and 404 feet into the back of the Cardinals’ bullpen Friday — which is directly to the opposite field.
It’s the kind of thing you rarely see: A left-hander hitting the ball the opposite way that hard and that far.
Except that Caglianone did the exact same thing the night before. On Thursday, he also blasted a home run 110.0 miles per hour, also the opposite way.
So is it rare? How often has a left-handed hitter scorched a baseball at least 110 miles per hour for a home run to straightaway left field?
It’s happened just four times all year — in all of baseball.
Caglianone just hit two of the four — in the span of 24 hours.
Caglianone completed the best series of his 12 1/2 months in the big leagues over the weekend. He homered in all three games against the Cardinals, including two on Sunday. He has seven home runs in June, and he’s hitting .379, with a 1.210 OPS in the month. He is beginning to look like a star in the making.
Or at least that’s the company he keeps.
Take a deeper look at the statistic we’re using as a reference point — his two home runs hit to straightaway left with at least a 110 mph exit velocity. The other two guys to do that this year are James Wood (Nationals) and Nick Kurtz (A’s), using Statcast data. Kurtz is sixth in baseball in Fangraphs’ WAR and Wood is ninth.
And Wood’s home run, by the way, would have left the park in only two stadiums. Kurtz and both of Caglianone’s blasts would have gotten out of any ballpark in America.
If you expand the criteria to include lefties hitting the ball out to left center field (rather than just straightaway left), Woods has three more of those, and Kurtz has another, and you can add one more name to the list: Shohei Ohtani.
As I said, it’s pretty good company.
It’s not a one-off (or a two-off). It’s the kind of hitter Caglianone has been recently.
The Royals have scored the fourth most runs in MLB this month, despite losing Vinnie Pasquantino to a fractured hamate bone injury, only sporadically including Maikel Garcia because of hamstring and hand ailments and recently losing Bobby Witt Jr. to a knee injury. They still lead the American League in average (.286) and on-base percentage (.355) in June.
There are a few reasons for that, but one stands out. And as luck would have it, it happens to be most relevant to this conversation: Their new No. 3 hitter is operating like a true No. 3 hitter.
The Royals moved Caglianone to the third spot in the lineup on June 14, and they’ve scored 4, 3, 6, 15, 6 and 10 runs. It’s only the second time all year they’ve scored at least six runs in four straight games. In that week, Caglianone tied for the MLB lead in home runs, led the league in runs and was eighth in OPS.
He’s been hitting third for only a week. He’s been hitting like a No. 3-hitter all month.
There’s a starting-to-put-it-all-together plot brewing with Caglianone, and if you ask him about the reasons, he will talk about his mental state before any physical tools. He blistered minor-league pitching last season before slumping in the big leagues. It’s why he spent less than a year in the minors before his call-up in June 2025.
But now he’s doing the same to major-league pitching. Caglianone is third in MLB in WAR this month, fifth in average, fourth in on-base percentage, fourth in slugging, tied for fifth in runs scored and tied for fifth in home runs.
It’s actually not the conventional route of pitch selection that’s led him here. He’s simply recognizing and identifying what’s coming his way more quickly. He is even swinging more often now, but he is, as you might expect, squaring the ball up.
He has the second highest line-drive percentage in the league in June, per Fangraphs. And he has something most others hitters do not.:
His line drives can leave the park — even the other way.
That’s always been the case. Before his first full professional season, which began in the minors, a Caglianone batting practice session in spring training could turn into a spectacle.
His major-league at-bats are the spectacle now.