Jac Caglianone (Revisited): Up-And-Coming Dynasty Player

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the first entry of Up-and-Coming Dynasty Players for the 2026 season.

The players I will feature over the course of the season are players  I think could help your team this season, but should help your team in 2027 and beyond. Some players are well known, others may be a bit more obscure.

The first player I am going to feature is Jac Caglianone of the Kansas City Royals. Let’s put him in the well-known category. The sixth overall pick in the 2024 draft, Caglianone sailed through the minors en route to making his MLB debut last year. This is what I said about Caglianone last June when he joined the Royals:

It has not taken long for Caglianone to fly through the Royals’ system. In fact, it took him less than a year since being drafted last year. Depending on what source you look at, scouts grade his power as a 70 to 80. No matter what it really is, it shows just how much power Caglianone has and should produce at the MLB level.

He has all the tools to be a top home-run hitter while maintaining a solid batting average and OBP. A first baseman and pitcher in college, the Royals started playing him in left and right field last year and continued to do that this year to give him more versatility. He will likely get some starts at first base, right field, and DH.

If it is not obvious by now, this is a player you want. If you already have him, fantastic. Keep him unless someone offers you Fort Knox for him. If you don’t have him, you’d better jump on the waiver wire and get him. 

The Stats

After heaping all of that praise on Jac Caglianone, he basically went out and stunk it up at the plate for the Royals last season. And it’s not like he showed steady progress from month to month, giving you some hope that he will become the stud everyone expects him to be. This is his month-by-month breakdown from last season:

• June: .157/.202/.258, two homers, four RBI
• July: .131/.209/.311, three homers, six RBI
• Sept: .183/.310/.333, two homers, eight RBI

Caglianone has an aggressive approach at the plate. He had a First Pitch Swing % of 39.7, more than nine points higher than the MLB average. His 51.3% swing percentage was four points higher than the MLB average. If he was swinging at strikes and producing, you can live with that approach. But he also had a 38.5% chase rate, which was way above the MLB average of 28.4%.

And for a player the Royals are counting on to deliver power, Caglianone struggled to lift the ball into the air as he had a ground ball rate of 50.6% compared to a 20.3% fly ball rate. Hard to drive the ball over the fence when it’s a grounder half the time you put the ball into play. Thanks in large part to his horrid debut last season, I had him ranked 190th overall entering the season and as the 25th best right fielder.

Dig A Little Deeper

So, after that debut and considering where I ranked him (which is a magic potion of where are they now and where will they be), how is Jac Caglianone still an up-and-coming dynasty player? Well, there are a host of positives to point to. First is the fact that while his slash line was horrible, he had a 22% strikeout rate, right on par with the MLB average. He also had a 7.8% walk rate (MLB average is 8.4%), with that walk rate jumping from 4% and 6% his first two months to 14% in September.

While Jac Caglianone was driving the ball into the ground, he still had 19 barrels, producing a Barrel% of 12%, which is way above the MLB average of 7.2%. His Average EV (89.4 mph) was above league average, and he had a Max EV of 114 mph – that’s pretty hard to do unless you have some serious bat speed and power. His xSLG of .431 was 23 points higher than league average, and his 42.4 Hard Hit% was 5.4% higher than league average.

There was a lot of bad luck for Caglianone when producing his stats last year. If you look at his xBA, xSLG, and xwOBA, his numbers are .237/.431/.321. Those numbers show a little different story about the lefty hitter. He also had a swing speed average of 77.4 mph last year, ranking eighth among major league hitters who had a minimum of 200 swings.

When Caglianone actually hit a line drive or fly ball, his average EV on those batted balls was 98.2 mph, ranking 10th among players with at least 150 batted balls.

It’s Only Spring, But…

Spring Training is never a true indication of what a player is going to do during the regular season, but right now, Jac Caglianone is looking like the hitter the Royals expected him to be when he was drafted. Before leaving camp to play for Italy in the World Baseball Classic, Caglianone was slashing .400/.550/.733 with one homer and four RBI in 6 games and walking five times with three strikeouts in 20 plate appearances.

He also hit three balls over 115 mph, including one that was 120.2 mph. Since the start of the Statcast era in 2025, these are the players who have hit the ball at 120 mph or harder – Giancarlo Stanton, Oneil Cruz, Ronald Acuna Jr., Shohei Ohtani, Gary Sanchez, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and Aaron Judge. Only Stanton (16) and Cruz (6) have done it multiple times. Yes, it was a spring training game, but it shows just how rare it is for anyone to hit a ball that hard. And Caglianone has actually topped 120 mph before, smashing a ball at 120.9 mph in Double-A last year.

And the WBC did not slow him down. In five games, Caglianone was outstanding for Italy, slashing .289/.500.571 with a homer, four RBIs, and five runs scored. He also walked five times while striking out only four times.

In the team’s stunning 8-6 over the United States in pull play, he was 2-for-2 with a homer, two RBI, one walk, and three runs scored.

So, What Does This Mean?

What this means is Caglianone shouldn’t be discarded this season as a failed prospect. Yes, his first 62 games were ugly, but plenty of people have had ugly starts to their career. Does anyone remember Mike Trout’s first 40 games in an Angels uniform (granted, he was only 19)? He slashed .220/.281/.390 with 30 strikeouts in 135 plate appearances. Alex Bregman started his career going 2-for-38 with 10 strikeouts.

The Royals sent Caglianone down to Triple-A in August to try to reset his season. Once with Omaha, all he did was mash the ball. In 16 games, he hit .385 with five doubles, five homers, and 16 RBI. In a total of 66 games between Double-A and Triple-A, he slashed .337/.408/.617 with 20 homers and 70 RBI.

Caglianone has nothing left to prove in the minors and obviously went through growing pains with the Royals last year. Heck, he could still have a few more growing pains this year. But it would be nuts to think he is going to continue to have a 50% ground ball rate. His past history in college and in the minors suggests he is a player who is going to hit a lot of home runs, drive in a lot of runs, and have a very solid slash line.

Jac Caglianone isn’t being completely ignored, especially in dynasty leagues, so you may have to trade for him. But it may cost you less to go after him now than it will in a month.

Thanks!

Thanks for reading and come back again next week for another edition of Up-and-Coming Dynasty Players.