What is there to say about Jac Caglianone’s 2026 season with the Royals?
The answer, first of all, is to let the bat do the talking.
However you slice it, the 23-year-old slugger gave Kansas City plenty to chew on this year. Last season’s version of Jac looked overmatched and overwhelmed, the kind of debut that had people wondering whether the Royals had pushed him too fast.
This time, the story changed in a major way. He didn’t just survive big league pitching.
He became one of the best bats in the sport.
That doesn’t mean the whole season was clean. There’s still plenty for the pessimistic read.
Caglianone struck out in more than a quarter of his plate appearances and posted the ninth-worst chase rate in baseball. His walk rate sat at just 6%, a number that only looks respectable if you’re comparing it to someone who’d rather ride a Segway.
He finished with 553 plate appearances, held back in part by platoon usage and a lower spot in the order early on, but also by a string of minor injuries that never let him settle in for long. He never played more than 24 straight games or started more than 23 in a row.
For a bat this dangerous, that kind of stop-and-start season still leaves you wanting more. On top of that, he was a defensive liability in right field and at first base, and the seven steals didn’t exactly move the needle.
Still, the optimistic version of the season carries a lot more weight.
From June 1 on, Caglianone produced the 16th-best ISO in baseball. He tied for the 33rd-most home runs and ranked 35th in fWAR.
Then came August, when he took AL Player of the Month honors after slashing .411/.429/.684/1.113. He led all of MLB in every one of those categories except on-base percentage, because he somehow only walked 2% of the time.
Even that quirk didn’t dull the production around him. Among hitters with higher OBPs, Bryce Harper was the closest in slugging percentage, and he was still more than 100 points behind at .573.
The most encouraging part is that Caglianone’s year looked strong even without cherry-picking the hottest stretch. Across the full season, he finished with the 32nd-best ISO in MLB and the 12th-best batting average.
Among all outfielders, he had the 12th-best wRC+. Strip away players like Bryce Harper and Chase DeLauter, who spent more time elsewhere than in the outfield, and that number only looks better.
There’s also a bigger-picture reason this season matters. The Royals’ top prospect did not just become playable; he became a bona fide star.
And that matters because the idea for this team was always that Bobby Witt Jr. needed help, a real sidekick who could lift the lineup with him. That was the hope when Caglianone arrived.
Now, after this season, it’s fair to imagine the dynamic flipping by next year.
One of the more useful ways to think about his growth is through Baseball Savant’s player comparison tool, which shows just how many of the ugly red marks from his first big league season improved in year two. And while the obvious draft-day comparison to Aaron Judge was always too ambitious, there’s another name that feels more reachable: Ben Rice.
Rice went from a rough first year to a huge season, hitting .264/.363/.534/.897 with 41 home runs and 4.2 fWAR as a bat-only first baseman. The age gap matters too.
Rice was 25 in that first season and is 27 now. Caglianone will still only be 24 next season.
That’s the part that should really catch your eye. This wasn’t the finished product.
It was the start of something much bigger. And for a Royals team that needed a legitimate force behind Witt, that’s a very good place to be.
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