KC Royals add to shock of Jac Caglianone call-up, send surprising name to Triple-A

When it was announced late Sunday night that the Royals would be promoting top prospect Jac Caglianone to the major leagues, there was definitely an element of shock to the decision.

J.J. Picollo and the Royals front office had long championed the idea of patience with their young phenom. So, after promoting him just 12 games into his Triple-A tenure, it likely caught many off-guard, as it didn't necessarily ring of patience.

But as exciting as Caglianone's promotion has been for the Royals faithful, with every move comes a corresponding move.

And the Royals stuck to the trend of "shocking" with their corresponding move in this case, opting to send outfielder Dairon Blanco down to Omaha in his place.

KC Royals add to shock of Jac Caglianone call-up by sending Dairon Blanco to Triple-A

At first glance, Blanco's demotion makes complete sense, he's not a lineup regular (8 PA in 9 games) and has only appeared in six games since returning from the IL a few weeks ago.

When he's been at the plate, he's been largely ineffective as well, hitting just .167 with a .500 OPS and a 25 wRC+.

This isn't the first times this season the Royals have cut ties with struggling names this season, as between Chris Stratton, Hunter Renfroe and Cavan Biggio they've been busy reconstructing this roster in recent weeks.

What makes this move surprising though, and different from other recent cuts, is that Blanco has still served a somewhat valuable purpose to this Royals team as a major speed threat. In his two full seasons as a bench bat with Kansas City in 2023 and 2024 (as 2025 has been a bit of an anomaly due to injuries), he stole 24 bags and 31 bags respectively with baserunning marks (BsR) no lower than 3.0 each year.

Currently, the Royals sit at a -2.5 BsR as a team, placing them 25th in the league. With such a limited sample size, someone with the speed of Blanco would surely increase his -0.1 BsR with more opportunities to showcase it, thus helping boost the Royals back towards the Top 10 BsR team they were a year ago.

And it's not as though the other candidates with options like John Rave and Nick Loftin have been particularly lighting it up since their recent promotions. Rave is slashing just .200/.250/.267 with a 41 wRC+ in five games and Loftin is slashing just .250/.278/.375 with one RBI and a 72 wRC+ in five games.

However, Blanco has seemed to get more of a shot with the Royals in recent years, so they likely knew what they're getting with him, a speed-first outfielder that doesn't contribute much at the dish if anything.

And given their extreme offensive issues as a team this season, Blanco simply didn't fit the bill of addressing their most pressing need.

At least with demoting him over Rave and Loftin, they're becoming committed to the future, which aligns perfectly with Caglianone's promotion. They're giving younger pieces with offensive potential the chance to grow, prove themselves, and hopefully contribute sooner rather than later to this scuffling offense.

In the past - this season included - the Royals had seemed to drag their feet when it came to moving struggling players off the roster, but in recent weeks with the decisions they've made in shuffling pieces match this move to a tee. The shock value here came from not knowing how far the team was willing to deviate from the norm and go all-in on this lineup rejuvenation.

And the answer is clearly they're moving towards going all-in - embracing the future, prioritizing optimal offense, and letting the kids play.