Scouting Jac Caglianone, Travis Bazzana and more Royals and Guardians prospects
A few notes from my final day in Arizona before I headed home …
I went to the Double-A and Triple-A games between the Cleveland Guardians and Kansas City Royals on the back fields in Surprise on Wednesday, with the higher-level game featuring two of the top six picks from the 2024 MLB Draft.
Jac Caglianone, the Royals' first baseman and the No. 6 pick, hit a towering homer to dead center off a pitch from a right-hander that was coming in towards his hands. Caglianone pulled his hands in and absolutely unloaded on the ball, with unbelievable power; most hitters would either swing around and hook the ball, or keep their hands inside but only be able to push it the other way. Caglianone took good at-bats the whole game, including an eight-pitch walk where he spoiled a couple of pitches and then took a pitch fairly close to the zone for ball four — a good sign, even if it's just one plate appearance, because his tendency to chase stuff out of the zone was by far his biggest flaw as a hitter in college.
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I saw 10 plate appearances from Cleveland second baseman Travis Bazzana, No. 1 pick last July, between the Spring Breakout Game and this Triple-A game, and he went 0-for-8 with two walks and four strikeouts. It was … not the ideal look, to say the least. He's opening his front hip early, but he did some of that in college too — it's just more pronounced right now, for whatever reason. I'm not trying to be some Prophet of Doom here, just to be clear. I think this is something to monitor, because if he keeps doing that pitchers will see and exploit it.
The Royals had a couple of guys from their top-10 prospect list starting the two games, one who was very good and one less so.
Right-hander Steven Zobac was dynamite in the Double-A game, working 94-96 mph with a hard changeup at 85-88 that had plus fading action and an above-average slider at 84-88, along with one cutter (that I saw, at least) at 91. He threw strikes, he attacked with the fastball, he used the changeup really well to hitters on both sides, and he can miss some right-handers' bats with the slider. It's better velocity than he showed last year, at least on the fastball. Even though Zobac only has 10 starts above A-ball under his belt, I really don't see why this wouldn't work in the big leagues if during the first month or two of the season the Royals need to call up a starter.
Lefty Noah Cameron started the Triple-A game and his stuff was meh, unfortunately, even though he can really pitch. He was 90-92 mph without much life on the fastball along any axis, with a full assortment of fringy pitches led by a 76-78 mph changeup that would be much better if he kept it down consistently. Cameron's got some deception to his delivery and clearly has a plan, so I'm not writing him off, but he needs more of something — more velocity on the heater, or some run or cut to it, or more spin to either of the breaking balls, both of which look pretty but aren't especially tight, so hitters are going to pick them up. He's been effective everywhere he's pitched, up through Triple A, so maybe I'm being alarmist, but I worry he's going to get very homer-prone in the majors with this arsenal.
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Guardians shortstop Milan Tolentino also homered in the Triple-A game — it wasn't as impressive as Jac's, sorry — and he looks like he's added some good weight since I last saw him in the Arizona Fall League. He's always been more of a tweener for me, as he can definitely play shortstop but isn't the kind of defender who could support what would likely be a sub-.300 OBP without power in the majors; he hit .241/.313/.370 in Double A last year at age 22 and .202/.352/.274 in the AFL. More strength and power won't help him cut down on his swing-and-miss issues, but it could mean better results on contact, and that would at least give him a shot to be a utility infielder because he can play all over.
(Photo of Caglianone: Travis Berg / Four Seam Images via Associated Press)
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