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Jac Caglianone could defy this historical trend with KC Royals

By Jacob Milham |
/ Wesley Hitt/GettyImages
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Open up a dictionary. Turn to the word "prospect." What do you see? It isn't an 18-year-old draftee, an international free agent, or their future, polished selves knocking on the door of The Show. Rather, Merriam-Webster says a prospect is "something that is awaited or expected" or "the act of looking forward." If that is the case, KC Royals fans will be closely following the prospect of slugger Jac Caglianone for years to come after the 2024 MLB Draft.

Jac Caglianone's ceiling with KC Royals seems limitless.


The Florida alum fell outside the top five this past weekend, a shocking development for many draft pundits. Kansas City, luckily, sat sixth overall and made the easy decision to select Caglianone. While Caglianone is undeniably a talent worthy of that draft selection, the real mystery begins after he signs with Kansas City.

How will that talent manifest? Will it be solely a left-handed bat with 70-grade power? Will it be a fastball-first pitcher with promising secondary offerings? One or the other seems most likely, but there is an outcome Caglianone should be able to pursue: both.

The plan is to build off of what I did in the past couple of years in college...Really just developing on the pitching side of things as well as the offensive side of things... I’m very thankful they’re giving me the opportunity to do both. I won’t let them down.
Jac Caglianone

Caglianone undoubtedly made himself a household name with his bat, bashing 68 home runs for the Gators across his last two seasons. Every swing has a chance to deposit a ball 400-plus feet over the right field fence, or even 516 feet, to be precise.

Caglianone's pitching potential could determine his MLB future.

Caglianone's raw power is an unending luxury for the Royals' farm system, and he will certainly abuse some less-talented competition en route to The Show. But fans, and Caglianone, want to see if he will pitch along that road to the major leagues. After all, he found some success against staunch collegiate competition. Why shouldn't he have a chance? MLB Pipeline made the case for Caglianone's raw tools on the mound.

The Tommy John surgery survivor struggled to find the strike zone in his first collegiate pitching action last year, but a more compact delivery was helping him stay around the zone more, even if his walk rate still remained high. He touches triple digits with his fastball, and he introduced a 90-mph cutter that he featured more than his slider this fall to go along with a solid changeup.
MLB Pipeline

Caglianone posted a 4.55 ERA across 34 starts, with 170 strikeouts in 148.1 innings pitched. There is no question about his stuff's potential, but it was his lack of control that caused doubt. 105 walks in his collegiate body of work is an incredibly high clip, fueling his 1.470 career WHIP in Florida. But the talent and sustained opportunities at Florida are hard for even Royals executive vice president and general manager J.J. Picollo to ignore.

It’s unique to have somebody that can do both and has done it at a really high level in the SEC. Doing it in the Major Leagues is another thing. And that’s something we’re going to continue to talk about and figure out how this can work. But we love his bat. We’ll say that. We love his bat, love his power, and love his athleticism. And that is, first and foremost, where we are. But we are well aware of what he can do on the mound as well.
J.J. Picollo

So, the door is open. Could Caglianone defy the odds and realize his nickname, Jactani? The deck is incredibly stacked against the slugger.

Shohei Ohtani has set the two-way bar incredibly high.

Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shoehei Ohtani reopened the door for legitimate two-way players, following several superb seasons since his MLB debut. But before he came along, the role gradually waned as baseball slowly became more specialized.

With Ohtani recovering from Tommy John's surgery this season, there isn't another two-way player. Teams such as the Angels and Cincinnati Reds toyed with some MLB players, but none of their experiences lasted long. Both New York clubs have two-way players on the farm, but the Yankees' Josh Tiedemann and the Mets' Nolan McLean are not close to the major-league roster.

The league drafted a record number of two-way players in the 2023 MLB Draft, but two-way players do not have a long line this century. St. Louis Cardinals' Rick Ankiel and Milwaukee Brewers' Brooks Kieschnick come to mind, but they are hardly sterling success stories. The two-way player designation became official back in 2020, but that roster flexibility hasn't been capitalized upon around MLB.

The odds are vastly against Caglianone, but we will never know for sure until he tries. He will have a very short leash regarding his pitching outlook. Teams are pushed to win games, which encourages them to get their best young players faster by getting rid of parts of their game that are seen as weak or ineffective.

MLB.com's Jim Callis said "Caglianone has a brighter future as a slugger," and the Florida alum is a prime candidate to rise through the minors fast. But, it feels like Caglianone only does that if he abandons his pitching aspirations. For now, he is riding the high of realizing a childhood dream and starting his professional journey with the resurgent Royals.

It’s an unbelievable feeling, I’m just really excited to get to work with all these high-end talent guys and just develop more. And become the next guy in the lineup behind Bobby, hopefully.
Jac Caglianone

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