Hindsight is always 20/20 and that’s precisely where the Kansas City Royals appear to find themselves this week when it comes to their young phenom, Jac Caglianone.
Caglianone and the Royals took the world by storm after the team gave him his big league promotion in early June after just 12 games in Triple-A Omaha.
At the time, it looked like the right the move. From his stat line their appeared to be nothing left for him to prove in the minor leagues, after slashing .319/.370/.723 with six home runs and 13 RBI.
However, Caglianone hasn’t looked like the aformentioned young phenom some thought he would be by now. In fact, he’s looked the complete opposite. He’s appeared overmatched in the majors so far, slashing just .147/.205/.280 with five homers and 10 RBI in his first 41 MLB games before landing on the injured list with a hamstring injury.
It now seems that the Royals could be questioning their decision to rush their former top ranked prospect to the big leagues.
Royals don’t seem keen on rushing to bring Jac Caglianone back to the majors
It’s no secret that the return of Jac Caglianone is on everyone’s mind right now as he continues to rake in Omaha on his current rehab assignment. Through six Triple-A games since starting his path to return on August 12, Caglianone has slashed .500/.556/1.042 with three home runs, six RBI, just a 7.4% K-rate and 305 wRC+.
Jac Caglianone has done it again 🤯 pic.twitter.com/4kDDwQiGA3
— Omaha Storm Chasers (@OMAStormChasers) August 20, 2025
He’s looked every bit the part of a hitter far too advanced for the minor leagues, but as already touched upon, the Royals have been here before with him. And according to the sentiment of manager Matt Quatraro, they don’t seem too keen on rushing him to the majors a second time.
“We didn’t set out a certain timeline,” Quatraro told MLB.com’s Anne Rogers last week on when Caglianone could be expected to return to the Royals’ lineup.
Quatraro said that he gave his potential future star a simple message when he embarked on his rehab assignment.
“Just go down there and play” he said according to Rogers. “Just because you get a few hits doesn’t mean you’re coming back the next day, and if you don’t get any hits, doesn’t mean you’re never coming back.”
Caglianone has every reason to have extreme confidence in his abilities amid his stellar Triple-A performance, but again, he’s been in a position to feel this way before and followed it up with a dismal 29 wRC+ output at the major league level.
And at the end of the day, the Royals no longer really find themselves in dire need of outfield help. The trio of trade deadline acquisitions in Mike Yastrzemski, Randal Grichuk and Adam Frazier have all stepped up in a big way since making their arrivals. And unlikely sources like Kyle Isbel and John Rave are in the midst of productive second-halves themselves.
The Royals can afford to play the waiting game with Caglianone and let him really get that time to develop as a hitter – something that they didn’t really give him the first time around back in June.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source kingsofkauffman.com ’
