Some highly-touted draft prospects struggle when they hit professional baseball. That…was not true about Jac Caglianone, the Kansas City Royals’ sixth overall selection in the 2024 MLB draft. Jac handled his brief High-A cameo well enough considering he started there less than a month after cashing his signing bonus, but his skill was on full display in 2025. Across 304 plate appearances in Double-A and Triple-A, Caglianone hit .337 and smacked 20 home runs, striking out less than 20% of the time.
Royals fans hoped for Caglianone to save last year’s squad, a team that struggled mightily to score runs. Unfortunately for Caglianone, he became part of the problem, hitting .157 and showing a tiny fraction of his power. And that’s to say nothing of his right field defense, where he looked every bit the stereotype of a lumbering first baseman stuck in the grass because he’s got to play somewhere and first base was taken.
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So when the Royals entered this season, some temperance for Caglianone was warranted. At the same time, it was clear that Cags was uniquely talented. His exit velocities in Spring Training and the minors rivaled other gigantic sluggers like Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge. And in the World Baseball Classic, Cags played well for Team Italy in big moments. Considering the lack of offensive talent on the roster and the Royals’ difficulties with scoring runs last year, surely you’d he’d be in the lineup above, like, Lane Thomas, Starling Marte, and Isaac Collins, right? Let alone all three?
To be fair, Opening Day’s lineup was specifically constructed to counter lefty Chris Sale, and Cags did pinch hit for Marte later in the game. But it was the start of a trend, a trend that involved Caglianone riding the bench way more than you’d think would happen for a core player.
The Royals have played 28 games, but Caglianone has only started and finished a game 17 times. On four occasions, Caglianone never entered the game. Five times, Caglianone was lifted from the game, either for defensive purposes or being pinch hit for. He has also entered the game twice as pinch hitter.
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Look, I get that Caglianone struggled last year. I get that platoons are an advantage. And I get that he’s a prime candidate for a defensive replacement or pinch runner in close games. But I just think the Royals are playing it too cute with Caglianone: he is a core player on this team, and one of only a precious handful of hitters with All-Star potential. To only use him fully in 60% of your games—putting other less talented and less impactful players in his place otherwise—is just a waste.
Perhaps the most annoying thing to me is the Royals going out of their way to keep Caglianone away from left-handed pitching. In part, that’s because Cags has actually been better against lefties as a pro than righties. In the big leagues so far, Caglianone had a .653 OPS against left-handed pitchers and a .576 against right-handed pitchers. In his 2025 Minor League Destruction tour, Cags posted an .841 OPS against lefties and a .795 OPS against righties. While we can assume that Caglianone will likely be worse against lefties in the long run, his professional career does not support the claim that he’s useless in the platoon disadvantage.
The other reason why this process irks me is because I think the confidence that the Royals show in a player like Caglianone after such a frustrating season is very important. Cags has been an amazing baseball player all throughout high school, college, and in the minors. His 2025 was probably the only time in his whole athletic life he was bad at something. I turn to the wisdom savant Ned Yost, actually, in part of his famed “dome” rant about showing confidence in Alcides Escobar:
“Guys are allowed to have off years,” [Ned Yost] said. “It doesn’t mean that they’re going to be terrible for the rest of their career.” Yost added, “We’re hoping that he bounces back this year, and you don’t start jacking with them mentally. It’s hard for people to understand that, fans to understand it. But that plays a big part in it, them having confidence in knowing that the manager has confidence in them in those situations.”
Notably, under Yost, both Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas completed 88% of possible games that season. And notably for Caglianone, he’s been legitimately good this year—both at the plate and on the field. He’s in the top 2% of average exit velo and max exit velo. Who else is going to eclipse that talent on this roster? Let him play everyday. Let him play against lefties. Let him hit tanks to tie it up with two outs in the ninth inning.
If the Royals make the playoffs, it will be in part because of Caglianone and not in spite of him. They should use him as such.
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