Kansas City Royals' Powerful Prospect Continues to Make Strong Case at Double-A

Jac Caglianone, one of the top prospects in baseball, hit his ninth home run on Friday night, raising his overall batting average to .328.
Kansas City Royals first round draft pick Jac Caglianone poses with his mother Johanne Caglianone for photos on the field prior to a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Kauffman Stadium in 2024.
Kansas City Royals first round draft pick Jac Caglianone poses with his mother Johanne Caglianone for photos on the field prior to a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Kauffman Stadium in 2024. | Denny Medley-Imagn Images

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Kansas City Royals' top prospect Jac Caglianone continues to make a strong case for himself down at Double-A Northwest Arkansas.

The No. 18 prospect in baseball, per MLB Pipeline, Caglianone hit his ninth homer of the season on Friday night. He's now hitting .325 with a .400 on-base percentage. He has a perfect 1.000 OPS and leads the Texas League in RBIs with 35.

Caglianone was the No. 6 pick in the draft last year out of Florida and he won the John Olerud Award as the nation's best two-way player. He helped lead the Gators to the College World Series final in 2023. MLB Pipeline estimates that he'll make his major league debut in 2026, but the Royals may have no choice but to promote him this year if he keeps hitting.

Kansas City has won seven straight games at the big-league level, and if Caglianone can help them make another playoff run, he may get the call sooner than expected. He's also begun working in the outfield to make himself more flexible and give himself more options to get to the big leagues (presumably).

The following comes from a portion of his MLB.com prospect profile:

Caglianone’s power was arguably the best in the 2024 Draft class. The left-handed slugger maxed out with a 121.7 mph exit velocity as a junior and didn’t stop there with a 117.3 mph max EV in the Fall League, second-best among batted balls measured by Statcast.

The Royals will play the Red Sox on Saturday night.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is the senior writer for “Minor League Baseball on SI’’ and the host of “The Payoff Pitch’’ podcast, which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. Follow Brady on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady.