4 days Ago By Kansas City Star
By Pete Grathoff Kansas City Star Former Royals All-Star Eric Hosmer has seen enough. He wants the Royals to call up top prospect Jac Caglianone from Double-A Northwest Arkansas. Like right now.
Caglianone, who was the Royals’ top pick in last year’s MLB draft out of Florida , has had quite the first week of the season. He’s already hit two home runs that have traveled more than 460 feet, including one on April 8. Last week, Caglianone had two hits, including a single that had an exit velocity of 120.
9 mph. Baseball writer Chris Clegg noted the hardest hit ball by a Royals player in the Statcast era was by Hosmer (118 mph). Caglianone was slashing .
346/.406/1.021 with 11 RBI through six games.
On his “Diggin’ Deep” podcast, Hosmer said the Royals should promote Caglianone to beef up an offense that has hit just six home runs the season, tied for the fewest in Major League Baseball. “I’m a little upset this program waited this long to bring him up,” Hosmer said. “I’m a little upset, Kansas City.
We need this guy in Kansas City right now, dog. This dude is straight up dominating the minor leagues right now.” Hosmer said Caglianone, 22, should be considered for promotion because he played at UF before being drafted.
“The guys in college, they come out already with a leg up,” Hosmer said. “Structure in college, the mindset, like it’s just much more structure than minor leagues. So three years there [with the Gators] gives you a little step ahead, I would say, than the normal high school guy going through the minor leagues.
He has proven now that he can hit, hit, hit. He knows what it is to be a professional. He needs a challenge.
He needs something more. “I felt like the plan all along was let’s keep him in Double-A, he’s going to rake, but we can still mix him in and right field, get that development going, and then maybe at some point in the summer — late summer, mid summer — he’s a little more comfortable with that, and we can throw him out in right field. “For me right now, I think we pivot.
The bat has shown that it’s ready. And like Ned Yost used to say [with the] Atlanta Braves, we missed the division [title] by one game. We don’t know if that game came in April, June, September.
I don’t want to see the Royals missed the playoffs by one game, which they won’t, but I want to see us win that division, and Cags can be that one game that separates us.” Former Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas, who was with Hosmer on the Royals’ 2015 World Series championship team, believes Caglianone will be in Kansas City before long. Moustakas is also on the “Diggin’ Deep” podcast and talked about Caglianone.
“When you’re a high school kid, you get drafted, you go through the minor leagues, they have a set number of at-bats they want you to get before you reach the big leagues, right?” Moustakas said. “And obviously it’s based on development, success, all that stuff. But there’s a set number of at-bats, or there’s a set number of innings they want him to play out in right field to get used to it, and also it depends on the growth of the person as well.
“Just being around Cags, he is a professional. He’s got it dialed in. He’s locked in on the field, off the field, and then with the way he’s swinging the bat, I think it’s a sooner than later kind of thing of when we’re going to see him in Kansas City now.
” Caglianone has only played at first base this season. A week ago, I asked Royals general manager J.J.
Picollo about Caglianone’s performance in spring training and why he’s starting the season at Double-A. Caglianone had an absurd 1.776 OPS in spring training with three home runs, three doubles, seven RBI, five walks and four strikeouts.
He made an impression on Picollo. But ..
. Picollo explained the Royals’ philosophy on sending Caglianone to Double-A. “He was great.
He was outstanding. We did that so he would gain experience at the major league level,” Picollo said. “Hopefully face some good pitching, which he did in a couple of those games.
But it’s like the building blocks of his career. And I know this game moves a little bit faster in some respects. “But when it comes to Jac Caglianone’s development, we want to do it the right way, and the right way isn’t to fire guys into the big leagues.
A lot of guys fail. Not saying that Jac would or wouldn’t. We don’t know, but in the best interest of the organization and Jac, where he is [is] where he needs to be.
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