Royals No. 1 prospect Caglianone rips two more homers for four in three games

Jac Caglianone looks like he’s figuring out this Double-A thing and finding his groove at the plate. That's bad news for Texas League hurlers.

There has been no pitching lately to the Royals' top prospect and Caglianone (MLB No. 18) showed why Tuesday, homering twice in Northwest Arkansas’ matchup against Wichita. The first multi-homer game of Caglianone's career was also his third straight game with at least one homer -- he's now socked four homers in his past three games and achieved multi-hit games in five of his last seven contests.

Facing Wind Surge righty Darren Bowen in Tuesday's third inning, Caglianone lined a solo homer over the left-field wall at Arvest Ballpark. He added a three-run opposite-field homer in the seventh, and also singled to finish with three hits and four RBIs on the afternoon.

Caglianone belted 68 homers as a two-way player over his final two seasons at the University of Florida before the Royals selected him sixth overall as a hitter in the 2024 Draft. It took a little while for that power to translate into pro ball, with Caglianone homering only twice in his first 29 games at High-A Quad Cities last summer in his debut. He then went deep five times in 21 games in the Arizona Fall League, flashing the power that made him one of the most feared sluggers in college baseball history.

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Now that power is showing up in droves. Caglianone launched a two-run homer onto the roof of a nearby building off Cardinals No. 11 prospect Tekoah Roby on Saturday, followed it up with a solo shot on Sunday and added the two opposite-field blasts on Tuesday. Already this season, he's also turned heads with a 120.9 mph single, two hits off future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw during the southpaw's rehab assignment, and a string of tape-measure homers.

It's the kind of performance that has the Royals thinking about what's next for Caglianone, and they've started sprinkling in opportunities in right field with an eye toward potentially getting him to Kansas City faster, perhaps as quickly as this year. Ultimately, it'll be the bat that drives those decisions, and so far, Caglianone is swinging exactly like the Royals hoped he would in his first stint at Double-A.

All told, he’s hitting .330 with eight homers, 31 RBIs, and a 1.012 OPS through his first 28 games at the level, where his eight dingers rank second in the Texas League.