Jac Caglianone

Jeffrey Alan Caglianone
(Cags)

Bats Left, Throws Left
Height 6' 5", Weight 250 lb.
School University of Florida
High School H. B. Plant High School
Debut June 3, 2025

Born February 9, 2003 in Tampa, FL USA

Biographical Information[edit]

Slugging first baseman Jac Caglianone was the sixth player taken in the 2024 amateur draft, by the Kansas City Royals, after a stellar career at the University of Florida. In his sophomore and junior seasons for the Gators, he hit 33 and 35 homers respectively, and drove in 90 and 72 runs. He was additionally a pitcher, going 7-4 and 5-2 those two years and earning comparisons to Shohei Ohtani. However, it was hitting that was most impressive - he had a streak of nine straight games with a homer in April 2024, matching the all-time collegiate record, with one of these travelling over 500 feet - and the Royals did not intend to have him continue pitching after signing him, even if they recognized he had the tools to be a major leaguer on the mound as well. During his college career, he was a two-time All-American, was the ABCA Player of the Year as a position player in 2023, won the John Olerud Award as the best two-way player in 2024, and played on the USA College National Team. Florida made it to the College World Series in both 2023, when it reached the final game, and 2024.

He started his pro career in the Midwest League, where he hit .241 with 2 homers and 14 RBIs in 29 games with the Quad Cities River Bandits, then joined some of the top prospects in baseball by playing in the Arizona Fall League after the season. There he hit .236 with 5 homers in 21 games and the Royals brought him up to spring training in 2025 as a non-roster invitee. He was very much the biggest story in camp for the Royals that spring when he flashed his tremendous power, but the plan was always to have him start out in the minors with the AA Northwest Arkansas Naturals. He completely dominated opposing pitchers at that level as well to earn a quick promotion to AAA at the end of May after hitting .322 with 9 homers and 43 RBIs in 38 games. He continued to mash with the Omaha Storm Chasers, blasting five homers in four games, and the countdown was on until when he would show up in Kansas City, whose own hitters were struggling to generate any offense. He was batting .319 with 6 homers in 12 games when he got the call to the Show on June 1st.

He made his major league debut on June 3, 2025, starting at DH and batting 6th against the St. Louis Cardinals. He went 0 for 5, but observers noted that in four of the at-bats, he hit the ball very hard and that Cards centerfielder Victor Scott had deprived him of a double with a great catch. His first major league hit came in his second game the next day, when he started in right field, a double off Miles Mikolas in the 4th that drove in Salvador Pérez from second base. In just his sixth big league game on June 8th, he had the first four-hit game of his career against the Chicago White Sox; in Royals history, only the incomparable Bo Jackson had managed to do this. He hit his first two career home runs in the same game, on June 19th against the Texas Rangers, after being sat down for the first time the day before. He hit his first long ball in the 2nd inning, a ball that traveled almost 400 feet off Jacob Latz, but the second one, in the 9th inning off Robert Garcia was the real monster shot, going 439 feet to right center field as the Royals won the game, 4-1. In his first 41 games, he hit .147 with 5 homers and 10 RBIs, then was placed on the injured list on July 27th with a hamstring strain, He missed a month, being reactivated on September 1st after a brief rehabilitation assignment to Omaha.

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