Jac Caglianone isn’t chasing answers anymore. He’s built a routine, settled into it, and the results have followed.
That evolution has helped turn the Royals outfielder into one of baseball’s most dangerous power bats in 2026. Through this season, Caglianone is hitting .274/.376/.486 with 22 home runs, a surge that has made him look less like a player trying to survive and more like a cornerstone for Kansas City moving forward.
He was back in the lineup Wednesday while dealing with ankle soreness, and the Royals got him back on the field in a 3-0 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre that ended their nine-game winning streak. Caglianone went 0-for-4, but the bigger picture around him has been hard to miss: this has been the clearest sign yet of his growth.
Last year, when things were going sideways, Caglianone lost the structure that had helped him climb out of slumps. He was arriving at the field with something different to try each day, and at times he didn’t know where to start.
Over the offseason, he picked up Chop Wood, Carry Water by Joshua Medcalf, a book centered on trusting the process regardless of what the scoreboard says. That helped him find his footing again.
This winter, he rebuilt his approach with a batting tee routine designed to reinforce his swing foundation and a hitting progression meant to sharpen his positioning. That work carried into the season, where he clicked with Royals assistant hitting coach Marcus Thames, whose playing and coaching background connected with him right away.
“If I have a couple of days where I’m going bad, he pulls me into the video room and we analyze what’s going on,” Caglianone said. “He’s not somebody who’s going to try to overload you with so much stuff that you’re going to start thinking 20 different thoughts trying to make it click.
He’s also got that player side to him where he can tell you to snap out of it when it needs to be said. I love that about him.”
Thames has had to do exactly that at times.
“He can go foul pole to foul pole with that power, but at the same time, he was chasing that power [early on],” Thames said.
The message was simple, even if it took time to stick. Caglianone had to stop comparing himself to everyone else and lean into what made him different.
“What does Jac do?” Caglianone said of Thames’ advice.
“Stop trying to be somebody else. Do what you do.
Do what you do well, and the results will be there. But you have to buy into that, knowing that your skillset is good enough to play here.”
That conversation came sometime in May, and Caglianone doesn’t think it’s a coincidence that June became his best month. He hit .309/.387/.649 with nine homers that month, the kind of production that made the adjustment look real rather than temporary.
Thames said the change started with slowing Caglianone down in the cage.
“It was all about shaping his routine in the cage to slow him down because he’s really talented,” Thames said. “It’s just his process inside so we can let the athlete play outside.”
The emphasis is on staying in position and letting the pitch travel instead of reaching for it. Caglianone is making adjustments faster now, and he’s trusting the process when a day goes sideways. Wednesday was another example of that, with two of his at-bats coming with runners in scoring position in a game the Royals could have flipped.
The Blue Jays attacked him like a hitter they respect, because that’s what he’s become: a threat who can change a game.
And that doesn’t always have to mean a home run. Thames said Caglianone is in a good place when he’s driving the ball to the gaps, too.
“Now he’s staying on the baseball, but he’s staying on it because he’s in a good position,” Thames said. “If he’s lunging at it, it’s a ground ball to first and he’s mad. Even in his work, he’s seeing the results.”
Caglianone sees it the same way.
“I want to have that true backspin, feel like I’m splitting the gaps. Nobody ever wants to try and hit homers. I’m trying to stay within myself and ease up off the gas pedal.”
His pregame work has changed, too. Instead of taking hundreds of swings, he’s down to 50-100, while also studying the opposing pitcher. He gets his feel, locks in his foundation, and then lets it play out in the game.
“You just watch him, and even on deck, I see him get those muscle memories of how he wants to land, so it’s paying off for him,” Thames said. “And it’s paying off for the team, because when he’s going, he can carry a team for a while."
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