Caglianone, Jensen offering glimpse of Royals' bright future this fall

SURPRISE, Ariz. – Jac Caglianone and Carter Jensen just missed each other during the summer. Jensen was promoted from High-A Quad Cities to Double-A Northwest Arkansas on July 18, four days after the Royals selected Caglianone sixth overall in the Draft. The former Florida star joined the River Bandits on Aug. 6.

Two of Kansas City’s top five prospects are getting to know each other in the Arizona Fall League, and what they’re learning is what the Royals had hoped for all along – that they might be two key pieces of the future of Kansas City baseball.

That future was on display Tuesday night at Surprise Stadium, K.C.’s Spring Training home. Caglianone – the No. 17 overall prospect on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 -- clubbed his first homer of the fall, while Jensen -- ranked No. 5 in the Royals system – also went deep and added a walkoff single in the 10th inning to give Surprise a 6-5 win over Mesa.

“We’ve learned we’re both passionate about the game,” Caglianone said. “We play hard. That’s probably our biggest commonality.”

“We both want not just us to succeed,” Jensen added. “We want everybody else around us to succeed more than we want ourselves to succeed. We motivate each other.”

The pair of left-handed sluggers also share an affinity in the power department.

A two-way star in Gainesville, Caglianone led Division I with 33 homers as a sophomore and followed that up with 35 last spring as a junior. He slugged .760 over his three seasons on campus and had the elite exit velocities to back up the stellar numbers.

Whether it be fatigue or the effects of a small sample, Caglianone hadn’t shown his trademark power much in the AFL, going 8-for-35 (.229) with only two doubles in his first eight games. Tuesday's game provided signs a turnaround was coming. His first three batted balls exceeded 99 mph EVs, including a 99.5 mph, 379-foot flyout that was snared at the left-field wall by Tre’ Morgan (TB No. 10) and a 105.2 mph liner hit straight at shortstop Benjamin Cowles (CHC No. 29).

Going lefty-on-lefty in the eighth inning, Caglianone put the ball where no one could catch it, destroying a 95.3 mph fastball from Jack Dashwood (Angels) and sending it 406 feet out the opposite way to the berm beyond the left-center fence. The 110.2 mph exit velocity was Caglianone’s second-highest recorded by Statcast in the Fall League.

“It’s a sigh of relief for sure,” said the first baseman. “I’ve been chasing it for a little while.”

The 2024 first-rounder wasn’t the first Royal to go deep on the night, however. Jensen, a 2021 third-round pick, connected on the first pitch he saw in the second -- an 84.6 mph slider from righty Mitch Myers (Athletics) -- and blasted it 436 feet to right-center with an exit velo of 104.5 mph.

“That’s the kind of thing I’ve been working hard for all season,” he said. “It’s something I wanted to get better at, being more aggressive early in the count. [I was] finding my pitch, doing a good job scouting out the pitcher, just going up there and having a plan.”

Jensen’s pure power might not rival Caglianone’s at this stage of the 21-year-old's development -- there's the difference in EV, for starters -- but it was noteworthy that the backstop clubbed a career-high 18 homers in 125 games during the regular season.

As Jensen noted, getting that power to play meant being less passive and thus taking fewer walks by dropping his BB rate from 18.5 percent in 2023 to 13.2 percent this year. But even so, he still posted a solid .359 OBP, and that combined with the power production, resulted in a 129 wRC+ across 546 plate appearances.

The 6-foot catcher showed Tuesday he can also still toggle between patience and aggression by taking a swingless five-pitch walk in the fourth and driving in the game-winning run on a 1-0 count in the 10th, hitting a 92.6 mph fastball from righty Wander Guante (A's) and placing it just beyond the reach of a diving Denzel Clarke (OAK No. 10) in center.

Over his three-plus years in the Kansas City system, Jensen has stayed patient while watching the Royals organization grow from an AL Central cellar-dweller to a postseason contender with a homegrown core.

“Everybody accepts everybody,” Jensen said. “There's no big-shot guy walking around, acting like he's better than everybody. Everybody's just a big family, and I think that's one of those things that goes from the big league level down to the Minor Leagues. … Then you get in the box, like what I did in that inning, [and you think] I'm playing for my guys, I'm fighting for my guys here.”

Caglianone -- with his collegiate accolades, prominent Draft status and $7.5 million signing bonus -- could have been that guy upon arrival, but he’s more than willing to fit into the organization’s culture.

“All these guys welcomed me with open arms,” he said. “Nobody treats me any different. I don’t treat anyone else differently. We’re all professional baseball players. Everyone’s on the same level.”

It’s a bond and partnership between the pair of Royals Fall Leaguers that could blossom beyond this autumn. Kansas City has high hopes that Caglianone could join Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino as the homegrown slugger to debut this decade, and Jensen could be in the succession line to take over catching duties from 34-year-old Salvador Perez and 29-year-old Freddy Fermin by the time he’s ready for the Majors.

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That would put the pair back in a lineup and make Tuesday’s slugfest a Kauffman Stadium fountains preview. Then again, the pair could team up in another way soon. Caglianone has yet to pitch in pro ball, but the Royals remain willing to let him try as he enters his first full season, opening the avenue of a Caglianone-Jensen battery.

“We haven’t gotten there,” Jensen said, “but I’m looking forward to it, for sure. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

“Me too,” Caglianone added.