Two weeks into his major-league career, Jac Caglianone has his first home run with the Kansas City Royals. Make that two home runs.
Caglianone, the Royals’ top prospect before he was called up on June 3, took Texas Rangers reliever Jacob Latz deep in the second inning to give Kansas City a 2-0 lead. He hit a 95.5 mph fastball high out of the strike zone but down the middle, launching it into the home team’s bullpen in right-center field at Globe Life Field. Getting the milestone baseball back likely wasn’t a problem.
The right fielder rightfully wore a big grin on his way around the bases and back to the dugout. As he got to the bench, his Royals teammates initially gave him the rookie treatment of freezing him out of a celebration.
Caglianone was undeterred, giving himself a high-five line with no one nearby before Salvador Perez and Bobby Witt Jr. finally acknowledged the feat, spurring the rest of the team to join in.
He added the second home run of his MLB career in the ninth inning, hitting the first pitch from Robert Garcia, an 86 mph slider low and inside, over the right-field bullpen into the seats.
During his first 13 games, Caglianone started slowly with a slash average of .196/.212/.235 with two doubles and two RBI in 52 plate appearances. He got his first career MLB hit in his second game with an RBI double.
Prior to his call-up, Caglianone batted .322/.389/.593 with 15 home runs and 56 RBI between Double-A and Triple-A this season. He was the Royals’ first-round pick (No. 6 overall) in the 2024 MLB Draft.
The Royals came into Thursday’s matchup with the Rangers at 36-38. That has them fourth in the American League Central, 11.5 games behind the Detroit Tigers. Those struggles are at least partially attributable to the team’s offense, which ranked second-to-last in MLB with 52 home runs and a fourth-worst .671 OPS.
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