Royals’ Jac Caglianone will take part in Home Run Derby and bring special guest
Kansas City Royals first baseman Jac Caglianone made a special announcement Wednesday while on the MLB Network. He’ll be taking part in the 2026 T-Mobile Home Run Derby on Monday ahead of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
As if that isn’t cool enough for Caglianone, who was the Royals’ first-round draft pick in 2024, he’s bringing a special guest to pitch at the event in Philadelphia: his dad, Jeff.
“I was approached a couple days ago and got asked to do the Home Run Derby,” Caglianone said on the MLB Network.
Mark DeRosa, the former MLB player who managed Team USA in the World Baseball Classic earlier this year, asked who would throw to him.
“My pops,” said Caglianone, who pushed aside talk of his father being nervous. “He’s got ice in veins. He threw in the Fall League Home Run Derby to me, and now we’re doing this one. It’s going to be great.”
Caglianone had his best month as a big-leaguer in June, batting .309 with a 1.036 OPS and nine home runs. It opened some eyes and garnered an invite to the event.
Teammates Salvador Perez and Bobby Witt Jr. previously took part in the competition.
Caglianone, who is batting .258 with 14 home runs, told The Star how important his father was to him becoming a big-league player.
“He’s definitely my biggest role model when it comes to baseball,” Caglianone said. “So he taught me the game, and it’s just super special.”
Caglianone will join a stacked Home Run Derby class. He will compete with Willson Contreras (Boston Red Sox), Ben Rice (New York Yankees) and Junior Caminero (Tampa Bay Rays), with others to be announced.
“I think it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Caglianone said. “To be around the best in the game is going to be sick. You know, sharing that with my family is probably the biggest thing. And to have those people and some of my buddies be there and everything, I know they are super excited for it.”
Caglianone also looks forward to the new Home Run Derby format. There will be no clock in the tournament as all the focus will be on the swings.
Participants will get 20 swings in the first round. From there, it will be 15 swings in both the second and final round of the night.
And there won’t be a bonus round or predetermined brackets. All the participants will take their swings and the highest scores move on. The top 4 advance to the second round, where they’ll compete head to head, and the winners will compete in the final round to determine a champion.
Also new this year, there are no outs. All contact is considered a swing, regardless if it’s a home run or not. And if a player homers in their final swing (of a round), they can keep swinging until they don’t hit a home run again.
Caglianone is excited about the new format. He feels comfortable that his swing will be fine as he navigates each round.
“I think, especially now with it just being swings, you don’t really mess up your swing that bad, if at all,” Caglianone said. “At the end of the day, you just treat it like BP (batting practice). I think a lot of guys, in their last round, let it eat anyway. Just got to do that for 20-25 more swings. I feel like it’s not going to make that much more of a difference.”
Caglianone is also excited that his entire family will be along for the ride. The Royals will be watching as well and cheering on their power slugger.
“I can’t imagine throwing BP in a Home Run Derby, much less to your son on that stage,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “You know, I talked to a lot of people over the years. Throwing BP in that setting is totally different than throwing BP on the field, even in a big-league game. ... So I mean, just the father-son thing is going to be remarkable.”
This story was originally published July 8, 2026 at 11:19 AM with the headline "Royals’ Jac Caglianone will take part in Home Run Derby and bring special guest."
