Caglianone Gaining Attention in Spring Training

If there was one swing, one pop of the bat and one gigantic human being that could catch the eyes of everyone on the baseball diamond while watching the Florida Gators, it was Jac Caglianone.

Now, the program's all-time leader in home runs is doing it again, this time at the Major League level in Spring Training for the Kansas City Royals.

Caglianone, who just six months ago was drafted at pick six overall, did not take long to showcase his well-known power in the Cactus league. In just his third spring training at bat, the 22-year-old first baseman showed why he holds multiple UF home run records.

Hello, Jac Caglianone. pic.twitter.com/Kfrdjvh8So
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) February 23, 2025

“That was loud.” Royals' manager Matt Quatraro said. “And it didn’t look like a huge effort on his part, either.”

While Caglianone is relatively new on the scene to the Royals organization, he has clearly made a good first impression.

Before gaining an invite to Royals camp, he hit .241 with a .690 OPS in his first stint in Single-A, only hitting two home runs in 116 at bats. Though he has not statistically dominated so far, his raw tools have been enough to garner attention.

“That’s a gifted human being. That is a very large human.” hitting coach Alec Zumwalt said. “The biggest thing I've seen with him is that he is so strong, so quick, and now it’s just if we can tame it a bit.”

While the top-ranked first base prospect in all of baseball has Kansas City's coaches excited, they are certainly not the only ones. On top of huge expectations from Royals fans, a certain young, superstar shortstop has seemingly taken notice of the Tampa native as well.

“You go around the clubhouse and you see Jac… just how he sticks out.” American League MVP runner up Bobby Witt Jr. said. “From how big his hands are and just how big of a person he is… The BP rounds he’s taken… It’s great to see.”

While Caglianone likely won't break camp on the big-league roster, he seems to be one of the last pieces to the Royals' puzzle. After a year where they achieved their most wins since winning the world series in 2015 and being led by one of the best young players in the game in Witt Jr., the slugger could become a part of the team's young, promising core soon.

Although MLB pipeline has the Royals top prospect projected to make his debut in the 2026 campaign, there is a chance that Kansas City emulates the decisions of clubs such as the Texas Rangers with another former Gators slugger, Wyatt Langford, in fast-tracking their top prospect to the league.

In a recent article where Fox 4 Kansas City’s Dillon Seekington makes some “bold predictions” for the Royals upcoming season, Caglianone making his debut before the end of 2025 made the list. Seekington calls this prediction possibly one of his boldest, yet says it is not out of the question.

Despite cutting his swing and miss down drastically in his final season at Florida, it remains a problem Caglianone will need to fix before earning that call. In his last year with the Gators, he only struck out 26 times in over 200 at bats, 32 less than the year before. Yet, in his first year at the pro level, he had the same number of strikeouts in 132 less at bats.

While not the perfect player, Caglianone will bring power to the Royals that they have not seen in a long time. Though only appearing in two games for the club, he already has hit one of the hardest home runs ever recorded by a Kansas City player in the statcast era.

Clocked at 115.4 MPH, this home run would have been the third-hardest home run in the Statcast Era (2015-) by a @Royals player.

1. Jorge Soler (115.7 MPH on Sept. 4, 2019)
2. Kendrys Morales (115.6 MPH on June 30, 2016)
3. @jac_caglianone 115.4 MPH today*

*Spring Training https://t.co/Fk7kIBNNHc
— Ian Kraft (@Krafty_3) February 23, 2025

For now, Spring Training will give Royals fans just a taste of what could be an exciting young duo of Caglianone and Witt Jr. However, don’t be surprised to see the former Florida superstar move quickly through the minors if he can control the strike zone and let his 70-grade power shine.