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Jac Caglianone’s season doesn’t stick out. He doesn’t lead the league in any important statistics. He’s not likely to reach any significant thresholds. He hasn’t completely overhauled his profile. No, his season isn’t that much more interesting than that of any other 2-WAR batter. But for Caglianone, boring is good.

That’s unfortunately a testament to just how bad the Royals’ towering slugger was last year. He couldn’t hit, posting a 47 wRC+. He couldn’t play right field, with -7 OAA. He couldn’t stay healthy, missing about a month with a hamstring strain. He accumulated -1.6 WAR over 62 games. It was one of the worst rookie seasons of the century.

Caglianone’s poor debut was a surprise to many, myself included. He drafted sixth overall in 2024 and ripped through the minors in less than a year with a “what you see is what you get” profile. As Michael Baumann wrote in February:

“At no point would I have accused Caglianone of being an elegant or sophisticated player. The premise here is simple: This 250-pound man, this three-technique defensive lineman in stirrup socks, can swing a baseball bat about as hard as anyone in the world.”

Sure, free-swinging sluggers aren’t the safest bets for quick success in the majors, but it was strange to see Caglianone hit for such little power when he arrived. He had posted a .707 slugging percentage in Triple-A, then watched it drop to .295 in the majors. Even the peripheral power numbers were concerningly low. His bat speed was as advertised, and he could occasionally hit a 110-plus line drive, but his 42.4% hard-hit rate was hardly exceptional. His great power seemed more spectacle than substance. The buzz had dimmed.

Then came spring, and Caglianone did this:

He smoked a 120.2-mph double into the right-center gap off Yilber Díaz. It was an event noteworthy enough that Davy Andrews wrote about it when it happened. Yes, it was spring training, when the points don’t matter. But nobody else hit a ball that hard this spring, or any spring for that matter. In fact, Caglianone became just the eighth player ever to record an exit velocity of 120 mph or greater. The feat was a nice reminder that Caglianone isn’t just any hitter with great power potential — he’s in a rare class of strength for a baseball player. The buzz was back.

Would that potential translate to the regular season in his second year? Yes, as it turns out. Well, maybe I should step back and remember the lede here: This isn’t an exceptional season. Caglianone has a 123 wRC+, 22 home runs, and 2.1 WAR as we close in on September. He hasn’t transcended into some inter-dimensional batting being, or even made an All-Star team. But his numbers to this point are perfectly solid and imply he is a viable major leaguer. That’s great, because whatever the on-field value, this is fun to watch:

Caglianone swings 77.3 mph on average, which is faster than all but five qualified batters in the majors this year. That hasn’t changed since last year. What has changed is he’s now getting way more from his contact, squaring up the ball 31.2% of the time (compared to 25.9% last year). Maybe it’s obvious, but a fast swing and flush contact is why he’s posted a 54.6% hard-hit rate and 105.6 mph EV50 — each top 10 in the majors. This is the sort of in-game power potential we were promised in his (brief) tenure as a prospect, and it’s respected enough around the league to earn him an invite to the Home Run Derby this year.

Unfortunately, that’s still pretty much the extent of what Caglianone does well at the plate, at least consistently. Again, it’s awesome he’s doing anything well, given his struggles as a rookie, and he could have a very successful career without changing much. But the rest of his profile lags behind, limiting him to a merely top-100 batter in 2026.

One reason is all that ultra-hard contact generally isn’t going that far. Caglianone has done well to lower his groundball rate from 50.6% last year to 46.3% this year, but most of his extra exit velocity is still coming on the ground. Hitting balls on the ground while improving the contact of those groundballs is a fine tradeoff, but well-hit singles are still just singles.

Elite strength also doesn’t matter if you can’t make contact. Caglianone has struck out 26.2% of the time this year with just a 6.1% walk rate, giving him a 0.23 BB/K ratio — bottom 10 in the majors. He swings at tons of pitches out of the zone, and that’s not ideal for someone who struggles to get the bat on the ball regardless of proximity. It’s a known issue that’s actually gotten a bit worse this year.

There are a few things that have improved in his approach, though. He’s crushing sliders this season; in fact, with a 5.5-run value per 100 sliders seen, Caglianone is the top slider slugger of 2026, a vast improvement from -2.1 RV per 100 last year. What’s interesting is this is the pitch type he whiffs against the most (39.8%). But when he does make contact, he has an .807 slugging percentage and 62.5% hard-hit rate. My guess is he’s learned to sit on the pitch. Baseball Savant’s new timing metrics show he’s early on breaking balls just 45% of the time in 2026, down from 57% last year. His accuracy on those swings hasn’t necessarily improved, still with big misses up, down, left, and right. But now he’s waiting, waiting, waiting before letting it rip.

Caglianone has also improved against fastballs. It’s the same story: He’s whiffing more this year (27.4% in 2026, up from 21.6% in 2025) but crushing pitches when he does connect. He’s specifically improved on the up-and-in fastball.

To me, all this implies Caglianone has sort of settled on an identity at the plate. Last year, pitchers could burn him in with the fastball and spin the breaking stuff away, and he was perpetually early or late or over or under, trying to cover everything and generally covering nothing. This year, it seems he’s looking to punish a few specific pitches, and taking a big ol’ Jac Hack when he gets them (and sometimes when he doesn’t, to be fair). Again, I will keep pointing us back to the lede — he isn’t consistent enough in this approach to be more than a good hitter. But he is executing his approach well on the whole this year, and at the moment, he’s on an absolute heater.

Caglianone’s 191 wRC+ in August is one of the 30 best individual player months of 2026. It’s his second month in the top 30, after he ran a 184 wRC+ in June. His adjustments have allowed him to look like one of the best hitters on the planet for a few weeks at a time. And while he hasn’t quite been able to sustain it for longer than that, it’s important to remember he’s still just 23 years old and has added nearly 80 points of wRC+ between his first and second seasons. We already knew Caglianone had fantastic potential, and now he’s shown an ability to adapt and improve. I don’t think his seasons will stay boring for long.