While the Royals have not performed the best this season, one of their young bats has taken his first steps into stardom. Jac Caglianone is beginning to put together a solid season that has him as one of the better Royals bats in an anemic offense to start the season. What are the next steps for him to reach his star potential?Starting with the basic numbers, "Cags" has slashed .254/.322/.442 for an OPS of .764, which is 200 points over his 2025 OPS. In 2025, his wRC+ was 46, but this season, so far, it currently stands at 111. He looks more comfortable at the plate this season and has made a good amount of adjustments to get off to this start. Now let's get into the good stuff.Baseball Savant DarlingThe most obvious thing about Cags potential stardom is his baseball savant page. There is a lot of light to dark red, meaning good to great, in his profile to start the year. The four best numbers that everyone will point out are his bat speed, hard-hit rate, barrel rate, and average exit velocity. So let's begin there.In those four stats, Cags lies in the 95th through 97th percentiles for all of them. His average exit velocity is 94.0 mph, his hard-hit rate is at 54.9%, his barrel rate stands at 17.6%, and lastly, his bat speed is a staggering 76.5 mph. That profile is eerily similar to Yordan Alvarez's this season. Just look at the percentiles.Jac Caglianone's Baseball Savant percentiles. | Courtesy of Baseball SavantWhile he is a savant darling for his results and bat speed, there are plenty of holes in his game. Let's dive into the specifics.The Plate Discipline IssuesLooking at his savant page shows two major holes in Cags game at the moment, his K-rate and his whiff rate. While he also doesn't walk a ton and chases a bit, those aren't the most detrimental stats for him this season. The issue stems from the fact he is not seeing a ton of pitches in the zone with a 45% zone rate.Going a little deeper, Cags is having some contact issues, as his overall contact rate stands at 70.9%. If we split his contact rates between outside-the-zone contact and inside-the-zone contact, there is a concerning development, specifically with his zone contact rate. His O-contact rate stands at 50.0% and his Z-contact rate stands at 82.6%.Both of those numbers are concerning, especially the Z-contact rate. The reason it is a concern is when he swings, which is 46% of the time, he is whiffing a lot, and for the Z-contact rate, he lies in the 22nd percentile, according to TjStats percentiles. In short, when he swings, he is whiffing on pitches out of the zone a lot and misses some pitches in the zone, leading to an inflated K-rate and whiff-rate.As it stands right now, this profile stands as a boom or bust one where when Cags makes contact, it is going to be hit hard, but if he doesn't make contact, he is going to whiff a fair amount. It is an issue to point out for his season so far, despite all the adjustments he has made.Adjusting to Major League Fastballs and SlidersMay 9, 2026; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Royals right fielder Jac Caglianone (14) at bat during the first inning against the Detroit Tigers at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images | William Purnell-Imagn ImagesOne of the key reasons Cags has done well this season is the fact that he has massively adjusted to major league 4-seam fastballs and sliders. In 2025, he had run values of -5 and -4 on 4-seam fastballs and sliders. This year, on the other hand, he has run values of 5 and 2 on those pitches. Not only is he hitting them above a .357 average, he is also mashes them above a .625 clip.With the positive adjustments also come the negatives, as he has not shown he can hit sinkers or curveballs at a high level yet. Those run values currently stand at -3 and -2 as he is barely hitting over .100 on either offering. It is still early in his career, so he can make adjustments to fix his approach for those pitches. Now let's get into the most concerning numbers for Cags.Lefty Troubles and RISPA hot topic in the Royals fan base has been Matt Quatraro's decision not to put Cags in the lineup against southpaws a ton. It may be a limited sample size this season, 32 plate appearances, but Cags has not shown to be good against lefties so far. His career splits against southpaws see a slash line of .185/.242/.370 for an OPS of .612 and a wRC+ of 65.If we just use the 32 plate appearances against southpaws this season, Cags is slashing .191/.219/.355 for an OPS of .574 and a wRC+ of 53. He has yet to draw a walk against a southpaw, and the only time he got a free pass was via a hit by pitch. It is fine to not be great against lefties, but if Cags wants to get out of platoon jail he needs to show he can adjust to southpaws.While lefties give him issues, the biggest issue for Cags this season lies in the fact that he struggles with runners on base. With the bases empty, he slashes .277/.362/.518 for an OPS of .880 and a wRC+ of 143. Once runners are on base, that line dips to .218/.259/.327 for an OPS of .586 and a wRC+ of 60. Once said runners are in scoring position, the slash line drops off a cliff to .138/.167/.138 for an OPS of .305 and a wRC+ of -21.We can also look at his leverage splits and it will show similar trends. As a low-leverage merchant, he slashes .345/.415/.638 for an OPS of 1.053 and a wRC+ of 190. In medium and high leverage, he doesn't show up a ton either with a wRC+ of 79 in medium and -50 in high leverage.ConclusionOn the road to stardom, there are plenty of ways for Cags to fully round out his game. He already has the intangibles swinging the lumber, but could iron out his plate discipline. He has adjusted to major league fastballs and sliders, but could improve against sinkers and curves. But for Cags to make that leap into stardom, he needs to show he can be the catalyst in the middle of the order, driving in runs. The Royals desperately need a spark offensively, and if Cags can make some tweaks in his at-bats to better himself, the team will have a star to put alongside Bobby Witt Jr. for the foreseeable future.Related ArticlesAdd us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow