02-06-2025
How will Jac Caglianone help the Royals lineup?
Yahoo Sports senior MLB analyst Jake Mintz and senior MLB analyst Jordan Shusterman highlight how Kansas City Royals' top prospect Jac Caglianone will positively impact the team's struggling lineup. Hear the full conversation on the 'Baseball Bar-B-Cast' podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
Jack Caglione was a pretty big deal in high school in Florida.
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He was a two-way player and he got Tommy John, I believe, either at the end of his senior year or right when he got to school in Florida.
And when he came back, it was like, oh my God.
He's throwing 99 from the left side, but he has no idea where the ball's going.
But he's throwing 99 from the left side, so we should probably let him do this.
Unfortunately for Jack Caglione's two-way dreams, he became so good as a hitter, we've kind of referenced this with Etai where it's like, man, he's so good of a hitter, you got, you can't let him pitch anymore.
That's pretty much what happened to Kags because he was One of the more dominant and like terrifying college hitters that we've basically ever seen, and because his command on the mound was so lackluster, it was like, yeah, sorry, dude, you're gonna be a hitter.
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Now the Royals announced him as a two-way player when they drafted him 6th overall last year, but pretty much everyone knew like, yeah, that's nice, sure.
So they kind of pretend like he's gonna do a little bit of both.
And then once he starts hitting and he starts pro ball last year, and then certainly in spring training this year, it's like, all right, dude, no more pitching.
You are an impact bat that we so desperately need because our corner outfield has been a true catastrophe for years and years and years and years.
Can you help this lineup?
The reason why it was like, OK, this probably is gonna take a while is that Jack Caglion swings at everything.
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His chase rate was through the moon, he was swinging at everything in college, but was so weird is that he wasn't striking out.
He has amazing bat to ball skills, but because he was chasing So often you would assume, well, once he gets into the Pro Bowl, once he starts climbing these different levels, he's gonna start getting exposed.
But the strikeouts have kind of still been not so bad, and he's still making so much contact.
And in a way that we kind of described with Aaron Judge, all the balls that he's putting in players so hard that his bat up is, is just very high and he is more of a contact hitter than you would expect for someone with that kind of approach.
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But the key with Jack's, you know, development and why he's now with the Royals and why this, it was like, how long is this gonna take, is that he's been a first baseman.
The whole time, they have first baseman in Vinny Pasentino.
They have a DH in Salvadorre when he's not catching or Salvador Presley wants to play first and Vinny's playing DH, but they don't have outfielders.
And Kags had not really played any outfield before he got in the Pro Bowl.
They finally started moving him out there and after what, 12 games in AAA, they're like, OK, let's stop pretending like he isn't one of our best hitters, and now he is coming to the big leagues.
