Kansas City Royals slugger Jac Caglianone is a future star.
The Kansas City Royals have had an underwhelming season and are heading toward selling at this year's trade deadline barring a miraculous turnaround over the next few weeks.
With the Royals building toward the future, they cannot afford to enter a full rebuild given how many young players they have under cost-controlled contracts. It has to be a retool era, and the foundation of that retool starts with their young core.
Aside from Bobby Witt Jr. leading the way, another player is emerging as a star in right fielder Jac Caglianone. The 23-year-old left-handed slugger earned a trip to the Home Run Derby over the All-Star break and has already established himself as a key piece in the everyday lineup.
Caglianone debuted last year and really struggled, leading many to believe he was simply called up too early after being selected sixth overall in the 2024 MLB Draft less than a year before his debut.
However, he has made it clear that those struggles shaped him into the player he is today. Across 90 games during the first half, he posted a .260 batting average, .321 on-base percentage, .782 OPS, 15 home runs and 35 RBIs. He has been a major bright spot on a team surrounded by underperformance.
The question now is whether the Royals should extend him before his value rises even further.
Extending young stars early has become an increasingly common theme around the league. JJ Wetherholt of the St. Louis Cardinals signed an eight-year, $112.5 million extension despite having minimal big-league experience.
The Royals themselves know this lesson well. They eventually locked up Witt on an 11-year, $288 million contract, one of the best values in baseball given the all-around impact he provides.
But had they committed to Witt earlier, they likely could have signed him for considerably less. They have a chance to avoid that with Caglianone.
The answer to whether they should extend him should be yes, provided the organization believes his production is sustainable. The raw power is real, the at-bats are improving and the foundation of what he showed in the Home Run Derby suggests the upside is huge.
Getting a deal done now, before another strong season drives his price even higher, is the smart move for a small-market franchise that needs to be efficient with its resources.
Caglianone and Witt together form as exciting of a young core as any team in the American League.
