Jac Caglianone’s power is enticing, but KC couldn’t have called him up without this
It was one thing for Jac Caglianone to radiate a certain serenity when he was speaking one-on-one in the low-key clubhouse setting of spring training in Surprise, Arizona.
Or for him to be tranquil sitting in the dugout with a reporter in Double-A Northwest Arkansas in April … even as he was getting ready to face future National Baseball Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw in an injury rehab assignment.
But it was quite another for the surging prospect who just got The Call to join the Royals to promptly conk out Monday during his first team flight just across the state to St. Louis.
“So that gives me a good indication that he’s ready to go,” teammate Vinnie Pasquantino said with a smile Tuesday at Busch Stadium before Caglianone made his extremely anticipated major-league debut.
That might seem like just a fun anecdote when it comes to Caglianone, who despite hitting the ball more than 110 mph twice (including a would-be double to right-center snuffed out by a brilliant catch) went 0-for-5 as a designated hitter in his first game.
“His presence in the box — he’s a big-leaguer,” Bobby Witt Jr. said after he had four RBIs in a 10-7 win that marked just the second time since May 12 the Royals scored more than five runs.
But that slumbering snapshot also is plenty revealing.
Because it speaks to why the Royals elevated the No. 6 overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft from Triple-A Omaha after a mere 11 games at that level … and well before they’d initially intended to.
At age 22, Caglianone is an almost eerily self-possessed presence — even on this day he said he’d dreamed of “ever since I could really kind of comprehend the idea of being a professional baseball player.”
Amid a media swarm on Tuesday likely beyond anything he’d ever encountered, Caglianone projected such unfazed cool I wish I’d had a way to monitor his pulse to quantify the point.
As he sat in the visitors dugout swamped by media close-talkers on an 87-degree day, Caglianone very much at his own pace pondered questions about social media attention and pressure and might as well have been a latter-day Alfred E. Neuman — the old Mad magazine icon known for the “what, me worry?” catchphrase.
“That stress is something that’s unnecessary. Unwarranted, for me,” he said. “I don’t play too much into that.”
As much as his prodigious talent and all the power implied by his chiseled 6-foot-5, 250-pound frame, Caglianone’s poise and restrained self-confidence is what compelled the Royals to flip the switch on what they consider the next phase of his development.
As opposed to suddenly assuming he’s a finished product.
“This isn’t about what he does right now,” general manager J.J. Picollo said. “This is (about) how he develops over time.”
Preach patience as they might and presumably as they will practice, this phase, alas, isn’t the more subtle scenario they’d hoped for.
Instead, his ascension is directly attached to his ability to help rejuvenate a dreadful offense threatening to compromise a promising season.
“The most ideal situation would have been that the team was clicking, the offense was rolling and just slide him in,” Picollo said.
But the dynamics shifted as Royals evaluators reported Caglianone was so ready they didn’t know what more he’d get out of Omaha.
Meanwhile, the Royals’ status as last in MLB in home runs and second-to-last in runs scored virtually had been offsetting their stellar pitching and left them a precarious 31-29 entering the game Tuesday.
“We’re not going to squander that,” Picollo said. “We’re going to push the envelope and do what we can to win more ballgames.”
Enter Caglianone … with some caveats the Royals believe he can properly process because of his makeup.
That perspective features what Picollo called incredible competitive instincts, resilience after struggles (brief as those have been) and attentiveness to coaching — including learning how to make better in-game adjustments and to play the outfield as he is expected to do on Wednesday.
Moreover, the Royals believe, his mindset features such an abiding sense of who he is that he can live in the moment — a vital asset in this sport as much or more than any other.
He “eliminates distractions,” as Picollo put it.
And the Royals will do all they can not to add to those, despite what’s been insinuated by the call-up.
“The message … is we don’t need you to carry this team,” Picollo said. “We need you to be part of this team.”
From an initial superficial look at things, anyway, he’s very much part of it already.
Buoyed by relationships the unassuming young man began to establish in Surprise, where he was the first Royals rookie invited to major league camp since Aaron Crow in 2009, Caglianone by all accounts was warmly welcomed Monday.
Apparently seeking to lighten the moment for him, Pasquantino interrupted the dugout interview by playfully yelling toward Caglianone from the field:
“You guys do this in the dugout now?! You need to get in the locker room. Unfreaking-believable. First day.”
As for Caglianone blending in, Pasquantino laughed and suggested he can’t because of his size.
More seriously, though, Pasquantino thought about what Caglianone might be feeling.
And he urged him not to try to be anything but himself even as all concerned hope he injects considerable life into the lineup.
“We’re not hiding from the fact that we are last in home runs or whatever it is this year,” Pasquantino said. “But where I would caution him is, like, he’s not a savior to this offense. Nor should he think he is. Nor should anybody think he is. Because that’s super unfair. …
“To me, that’s like the most unfair thing you can do to somebody. He needs to come into this lineup and be his best self. Because his best self is what helps us the most, not him trying to do too much or to try to, you know, ‘save’ the offense.”
No doubt that message resonates with Caglianone, who is so eager to learn he’s kept notebooks since spring training of wisdom imparted from teammates such as Pasquantino and Witt and many others.
But there’s also little doubt that sort of thinking already is hardwired into him.
Challenged as that might be in the weeks, months and years to come, it’s also a major part of why the Royals chose to make the future now when it comes to him.
Citing his rapid rise and a history that includes playing in the College World Series only a year ago, Picollo said, “I don’t think he’s intimidated by any moment.”
That unflappable air of confidence, he added, “is what gives us the confidence to say … this is Jac’s time.”
This story was originally published June 3, 2025 at 11:19 PM with the headline "Jac Caglianone’s power is enticing, but KC couldn’t have called him up without this."