Baseball world reacts to Jac Caglianone's highly anticipated promotion to KC Royals

The Kansas City Royals shocked the baseball world by going against the patient stance they set for themselves and promoting top prospect Jac Caglianone on Sunday night after only a brief 12-game stint in Triple-A.

With such a sudden move surrounding one of the top prospects in all baseball, there was bound to be an extreme reaction among both fans and those close to the game.

And that reaction is firmly upon us, as several high profile names have weighed in on their thoughts surrounding the 22-year-olds ascent to the big leagues.

Baseball world reacts to Jac Caglianone's promotion to KC Royals

When a Top 10 prospect gets his first shot in the majors, it's catches the attention of the baseball world more often than not.

To none's surprise, many around the Royals organization have sung their praises for the young phenom.

KC Royals legend and 2015 World Series champion Eric Hosmer has been one of Caglianone's biggest supporters all year, consistently taking to X (formerly Twitter) to provide ringing endorsements for his fellow first baseman.

And he's done so multiple times since the news broke on Sunday night via humorous GIFs for the most part, but also a very heartfelt message on Monday in response to Caglianone's official call-up video.

"Fired up for KC and Young Jac," Hosmer said.

"Young Jac has probably heard by now thousands of times how special KC fan base is but oh boy I can’t wait for him to actually feel it now," he wrote.

"I’m fired up for this dude and my popcorn is ready for it all," he added.

Joining in with Hosmer was Caglianone's former Double-A teammate and Top 100 prospect-mate in Carter Jensen.

Jensen, MLB Pipeline's 87th overall prospect, was alongside Caglianone for his 38-game stretch to start the season, when he hit .322 with nine homers, 43 RBI and a .947 OPS.

He took to X to offer his congratulations to his former lineup mate, and hopefully future big league teammate soon.

Then there's those who cover the game, who have offered their analytical opinions on why the baseball community should be excited about major league debut of Caglianone.

Jeff Passan of ESPN, who broke the promotion news, was a guest on The Pat McAfee Show on Monday and weighed in on his thoughts on the Royals' prized prospect.

When asked if the casual fan who may not be familiar with Caglianone's game yet, should anticipate him being one of the marketable MLB stars of the future, Passan made his opinion very clear on the Royals' young slugger.

"I know you said that this is the kind of guy that maybe the casual fan doesn't really know about, they should," Passan said. "And I think they're going to."

"He is a guy who has the kind of power that Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani have," he said.

While he spent some time pointing out that Caglianone still has vulnerabilities to his game, such as the swing and miss, Passan didn't let that take away from just how skilled and promising a prospect he is though.

"The guy is so skilled though," he said. "Even if he does not get off to an incredible start, he's going to hit a ball 450-475 feet just like that, that your going to see and say 'oh my God, how does a human being do that?'"

Then there was former MLB executive and current analyst Jim Bowden, who took to MLB Network Radio on Monday to join in on the Caglianone hype train.

He outlined that the Royals lack power in 2025, sitting dead last in MLB in home runs at just 34, and how Caglianone could address that desperate need.

"I think what Cags does is provide that power," Bowden said.

"Now I know it's tough at Kauffman Stadium, it's not a great ballpark to hit homers, but it doesn't matter with Cags," he said.

"There's not a stadium that can contain him," Bowden said.

He also took the chance to visualize how potent this lineup could look when adding Caglianone to the heart of it amongst Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez.

"Now you've stacked four hitters," he said. "This is going to change your whole offense and what he's going to do is hit that occasional three-run homer that's a game changer."

Now it will be up to Caglianone to continue to showcase in the major leagues what he's already displayed in the minors and live up to these glowing endorsements.

He'll get his first shot on the road against the Royals' in-state rivals in St. Louis when they travel to Busch Stadium on Tuesday to open a midweek series against the Cardinals.