Heading into the 2025 season, the Kansas City Royals have plenty to be excited about from top to bottom in their organization. At the big-league level, there’s a very good chance for a second straight postseason run to come together on the shoulders of Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez.
Down on the farm, the Royals have a top-heavy group of prospects nearing The Show, but there are as many as five or six legitimate can’t-miss names leading the charge.
On essentially any major prospect-ranking outlet in the industry, you’ll find Jac Caglianone in the top spot for the Royals with Blake Mitchell right behind him in second place. MLB Pipeline, Just Baseball, and Baseball America all have those exact two players as the club’s 1-2 punch.
However, R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports is the one brave person out there that has the order flip-flopped and it begs the question: is Caglianone really the top prospect in this system? Or does Mitchell have a case?
Could Jac Caglianone be dethroned as the Royals’ top prospect?
Caglianone, soon to be 22, was the Royals’ first-round selection in the 2024 MLB Draft and has a ton of hype surrounding him. After hitting a whopping 35 home runs in just 66 games in his final collegiate season, it’s not difficult to see why.
The power-hitting first baseman didn’t exactly hit the ground running in his first 29-game showing as a pro, but a promising 21-game stint in the Arizona Fall League reminded many why he’s become such a highly-touted prospect.
However, Mitchell is not to be taken lightly. Not only does he play a much more premier defensive position than Caglianone, but he’s already shown off plenty of his own raw power in games while also putting on a clinic behind the plate and carving up the bases whenever he reaches base.
Caglianone has, to this point, so much untapped potential, but it’s worth noting that Mitchell’s already begun to captalize on his own. In 2024, his first full season as a pro, Mitchell hit 18 home runs while driving in 51 runs, scoring 66 of his own and going 26-for-32 in stolen base attempts. As a catcher, those stolen base numbers are just off the charts.
He also hit .232 while posting a combined .793 OPS. Sure, he’s still got plenty of room to grow, but what prospect doesn’t? As Anderson notes, Mitchell would be the first first-round catcher to make it to The Show since Joe Mauer did it over 20 years ago.
Where the gap begins to close is the fact that Caglianone will be trying his hand at a two-way career. He threw straight gas in college while simultaneously hitting the cover off the ball seemingly every time he stepped up to the plate. If his pitching career falls flat (and it very well could), that puts the weight of the world on his offensive shoulders. He doesn’t play a premier position, he didn’t get off to the best start as a pro, and he’s completely unproven as a two-way player.
That’s not to say his shine has worn off, but there’s a good amount of risk here. Mitchell has already shown off the tools he’s got in his arsenal, so all we’re saying is that the gap between one and two in the Royals’ prospect rankings list is much smaller than you’d think.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source kingsofkauffman.com ’
