GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Jac Caglianone left no doubts with his first homer of the spring.
The Royals’ right fielder obliterated a baseball in the fourth inning of the club’s 5-4 loss to the Reds on Tuesday afternoon at Goodyear Ballpark, sending it 115.2 mph off his bat and a Statcast-projected 460 feet.
Beyond the jaw-dropping distance, two other things stood out about the homer: It was a left-on-left matchup against Reds lefty Brandon Williamson, and it came with two strikes after Caglianone took a sweeper for a called strike and fouled off a cutter.
When Williamson left the 94.8 mph fastball too much in the zone, Caglianone did not miss it.
“He had a really good slider working for him, and I knew that he got Carter [Jensen] on three in a row,” Caglianone said. “So when I got 0-2, I was like, 'Wouldn’t be surprised if he went to that again,' but I also still stayed on the heater. Thankfully, I got one just up enough to put a good swing on it.”
“The combination of things there, whether it was two strikes or off a lefty,” manager Matt Quatraro added. “But the effort level on the swing seemed a little bit less than earlier in the count, and maybe that’s a good lesson for him to learn that it doesn’t have to be 100% for him to do that.”
It’s an important spring for Caglianone, coming off a rookie season in which he hit just .157 with a .532 OPS in 62 games. The Royals are giving him the opportunity to get everyday at-bats in right field and earn his playing time with that opportunity. If Caglianone is hitting the way the Royals think he could -- and Tuesday’s home run is evidence of what that could be -- this offense looks a whole lot different, with more impact and more depth.
“I feel a lot better in game situations,” Caglianone said. “I’m not super amped up in my first Spring Training anymore. There’s a purpose in this, and it’s to get ready for [March 27]. Having that in mind -- rather than just geeking out that you’re in big league camp playing with a bunch of big leaguers -- has really been the biggest thing this spring.”
Caglianone has gone 3-for-8 in Cactus League games this spring, with a home run, one walk and two strikeouts. He’s had a couple of good at-bats on the backfields in live BPs, including a home run off Carlos Estevez this past weekend.
Results are always great to see, but the Royals are watching Caglianone’s process at the plate, especially after he spent the offseason working on his approach and swing decisions. He’s tried to be a “tough critic,” in his mind, and not looking so much at whether he’s getting a hit or not, but what he did that led to a certain result. Like in his last at-bat Tuesday, when he took a sinker in off the plate. Even though it was called a strike, Caglianone felt better about it when he got back in the dugout and saw that it was a little off the plate -- a potential challenge, if the Royals hadn’t been out of challenges at that point -- and that he didn’t try to swing at it.
“That was one of those takes where last year I’m probably nose-diving into it and breaking my bat,” Caglianone said. “So that’s a win.”
And the 460-foot homer earlier?
“Yeah, that’s a good one, too,” he said with a grin.