The power-hitting prospect may be in KC soon though.
In just his first profession spring training, Jac Caglianone was invited to big league camp and immediately wowed with his prodigious power. It led some fans to speculate whether he could even make the Opening Day roster. It was a long shot, but today we received confirmation that Caglianone is not a big leaguer….yet.
On Monday, the Royals assigned Caglianone to minor league camp along with infielder Cam Devanney, and outfielders Gavin Cross and John Rave, leaving 40 players in camp.
1B Jac Caglianone, OF Gavin Cross, SS Cam Devanney, and OF John Rave have been assigned to minor league camp. Our Major League camp roster is at 40.
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) March 17, 2025
Caglianone went 9-for-17 (.529) with three doubles, three home runs, with five walks and just three strikeouts in his time with the Royals in big league camp. However Caglianone frequently batted late in games against non-big leaguers. As Craig Brown at Into the Fountains pointed out:
Probably the most useful metric that I use from spring training is found at Baseball Reference: Quality of opposing pitchers faced. Caglianone is currently at 7.1 on a scale that goes up to 10. That means the pitchers he’s been facing, on average, are closer to Double-A than to the Triple-A level.
Still, the outing is very impressive for a player who was playing SEC baseball just a year ago and has all of 21 professional games under his belt. It is not clear yet where Caglianone will eventually be assigned, but it will likely be either Triple-A Omaha or Double-A Northwest Arkansas.
If he gets off to a good start, there will be pressure to get him up to the big leagues, especially if the Royals offense gets off to a slow start. The Royals already have Vinnie Pasquantino at first base, but he could DH on some days to get Caglianone in the lineup.
Could the Royals move Caglianone to right field to take advantage of his tremendous arm and fill a hole in the outfield? Caglianone stands 6’5’’, 250 pounds, quite large for an outfielder. But it is not totally unprecedented for a player that large to play out there. Aaron Judge, Jhonkensy Noel, Jordan Walker, Avisail Garcia, and Eloy Jiménez are all recent examples of sluggers of at least 250 pounds lumbering around the outfield. MLB.com reporter Anne Rogers suggests he could begin making the transition.
If he does hit the way evaluators think he will, Caglianone will likely get reps in the outfield to make room for him, Pasquantino and Perez all on the same roster.
He won’t be in an outfield in Kauffman Stadium on March 27 to open the season. But it shouldn’t be long before Caglianone is crushing baseballs into the fountains.