PHILADELPHIA -- Jac Caglianone fulfilled a childhood dream and made a solid showing, but it wasn’t enough to advance out of the first round of the 2026 T-Mobile Home Run Derby at Citizens Bank Park.
Caglianone finished tied for sixth among the eight contenders with eight home runs, and only the top four advanced. While CBP doesn’t have a reputation as being especially friendly or unfriendly to right- or left-handed hitters, it certainly seemed the righties had the most fun in the first round. All three right-handed hitters -- Willson Contreras, Jordan Walker and Junior Caminero -- launched at least 12 homers, placing first, second and third in the opening round. Meanwhile none of the five lefties -- Kyle Schwarber, Ben Rice, Caglianone, Bryce Harper and Munetaka Murakami -- tallied more 10, and among them, only Schwarber advanced to the second round.
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The Royals slugger found himself in fourth after four batters, but withstood a challenge from Rice. However, when Caminero hit his ninth on the way to 12 total, Caglianone was eliminated.
With his father, Jeff, throwing, Caglianone got on the board quickly, hitting a Statcast-projected 462-foot rocket off the Toyota sign at the base of the second deck in right field on his second swing. But then he went into a bit of a lull, going seven swings without a homer before heating up.
Caglianone was much more successful on the back half of his 20 swings, blasting four long balls in a row on swings 10-13, and seven in a nine-swing stretch. But he was unable to force bonus time by homering on his final allotted swing, leaving his total at eight.
He got some good ones in while he was at it, though. Caglianone didn’t just go to right field, as some of his most impressive shots were up the middle -- including two titanic homers over the batter’s eye in center field, coming in at a projected 475 and 463 feet.
His most majestic, though, was a stunner to straightaway right field, 477 feet into the third deck, a ball that garnered by far the most oohs and ahhs of anything he hit.