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Gators great Jac Caglianone promoted to the majors, per reports

On3 imageby: Keith Niebuhr06/02/25On3Keith
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(Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports)

For Florida Gators great Jac Caglianone, the wait it over; he is going to the show. The Kansas City Royals are promoting Caglianone to the majors, Jeff Passan of ESPN reported late Sunday night.

Caglione was the sixth overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft.

He was called up to Triple-A just two weeks ago after tearing it up this season for the Double-A Northwest Arkansas Naturals. For that team, he was hitting .322/.394/.553 with nine homers and 17 extra-base hits. In Triple-A, he kept on hitting. Per Passan, “In his first full professional season, the 22-year-old Caglianone has crushed pitching at Double-A and Triple-A, combining for 15 home runs and 56 RBIs across 50 games while hitting .322/.389/.593.”

Here’s what else Passan wrote about Jac Caglianone

Originally a first baseman, he has spent the majority of his Triple-A games in the outfield and is expected to play there when he joins the Royals for their series that starts Tuesday in St. Louis.

Caglianone’s calling card is top-of-the-scale power, seen in numerous tape-measure home runs this season. With exit velocities that rival those of Aaron Judgeand Shohei Ohtani, Caglianone is expected to eventually be a staple in the middle of the Royals’ order along with Bobby Witt Jr.

For a player with such immense power, Caglianone has struck out in only 20% of his plate appearances this season. Kansas City was loath to promote him, though, because of fears that he chased too many pitches outside of the strike zone and could be exposed by premium pitches in the major leagues.

Caglianone, 22, actually got off to a slow start last year just after being drafted. He batted just .241 in 29 games for High-A Quad Cities and then .236 in 21 games in the Arizona Fall League. He was ranked No. 29 on the preseason top 100 MLB prospects list by ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel.

In Gainesville, he put up legendary numbers.

Caglianone belted 68 home runs during his final two seasons with the Gators while playing first base and pitching. That included 35 homers as a junior in 2024, which trailed only the 37 from Georgia’s Charlie Condon. Condon who was drafted No. 3 overall by Colorado.

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