Surging Caglianone brings huge power to Derby for 1st time

KANSAS CITY -- One of the best young sluggers in the game is taking his powerful left-handed swing to Citizen Bank Park next week.

Jac Caglianone on Wednesday announced his decision to participate in Monday’s T-Mobile Home Run Derby in Philadelphia, airing live on Netflix.

Caglianone will be participating in his first Home Run Derby, and will be the Royals’ first participant since Bobby Witt Jr. blasted 50 homers as the 2024 Derby runner-up in Texas. Witt was named the American League’s starting shortstop for the All-Star Game this year and will be in Philly along with right-hander Michael Wacha to cheer on Caglianone.

Caglianone joins Rays third baseman Junior Caminero and Yankees first baseman Ben Rice as the other Derby participants announced in this year’s field. Both Caglianone and Caminero are just 23 years old, so they each have a chance to become the youngest Home Run Derby candidate, a title currently held by Juan Gonzalez, who was 23 years and 265 days old when he won it in 1993.

While Caglianone wasn’t named an All-Star this past weekend, he’s a perfect Derby candidate. It doesn’t take long to realize the power he wields in his bat when he starts taking batting practice, lifting the ball to all fields and doing it repeatedly.

That power is what drew the Royals to Caglianone in the 2024 Draft, when they selected the two-way Florida star No. 6 overall but quickly made clear their desire to develop him as a hitter. That was the quickest way to get Caglianone to the Major Leagues, and it proved to be true: After dominating Double-A and Triple-A last season, Caglianone made his MLB debut on June 3, 2025, less than a year after he was drafted.

Caglianone went through struggles in his rookie season, but he’s starting to put it together in 2026 and has become an everyday player for the Royals in the middle of their lineup. Entering Wednesday's action, Caglianone was slashing .258/.322/.455 with 14 home runs after going on a homer heater in June, when he mashed nine. He ranked among the American League leaders in June in runs scored (21, second), OPS (1.036, tied for second), home runs (nine, tied for second), total bases (66, second) and average (.309, ninth).

Part of Caglianone’s growth this season has been in his ability to take what a pitcher is giving him, even if that means singles, doubles or walks. But when a mistake pitch is made, Caglianone wants to be all over it and do damage. He hits the ball incredibly hard, with an average exit velocity and max exit velocity that both rank near the top of the Major League leaderboard. Not many hitters can uncork a swing like Caglianone; his 77.2 mph average bat speed entering Wednesday was tied with two other players for sixth in the Majors.

And that usually translates to long home runs, of which Caglianone has plenty in his young career. Entering Wednesday, Caglianone’s average home run distance this year was 418 feet, tied for the longest in MLB with Mickey Moniak (minimum 10 homers), and his average home run exit velocity of 108.6 mph was third hardest in that same group, behind Shohei Ohtani and James Wood.

In fact, nearly 79% of Caglianone’s homers this season are no-doubters -- gone at every stadium -- which is third highest among hitters with 10-plus home runs, behind Alec Burleson and Iván Herrera.

Caglianone’s longest home run this season was a 444-foot drive on June 21, second only to rookie Carter Jensen’s 449-foot blast last week for longest by a Royal in 2026. The longest homer of Caglianone’s career was 466 feet, a shot he launched last July 9; only 20 players have hit a home run that long since the start of 2025.

Clearly, Caglianone has the power and skillset to compete with anybody. With a new set of rules in place for the Derby this year, Caglianone will try to do just that with each dinger he launches: Hit them hard, and hit them far.