Jac Caglianone was bounced in the first round of the Home Run Derby last night, but not before he unleashed some truly magnificent homers.
Caglianone belted eight home runs in the first round of the annual tournament. He got off to a slow start before settling in with some mammoth homers.
In his session, Caglianone blasted homers well into the third deck at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He also hit a baseball over the batter’s eye in center field before bowing out after 20 swings.
However, Caglianone wouldn’t move forward. He was not one of the final four participants after Willson Contreras (13 homers), Jordan Walker (13), Junior Caminero (12) and Kyle Schwarber (10) advanced in the competition.
Matthew Leach at MLB dot com also covered Caglianone’s performance in the Derby.
Caglianone finished tied for sixth among the eight contenders with eight home runs, and only the top four advanced. While CBP doesn’t have a reputation as being especially friendly or unfriendly to right- or left-handed hitters, it certainly seemed the righties had the most fun in the first round. All three right-handed hitters — Willson Contreras, Jordan Walker and Junior Caminero — launched at least 12 homers, placing first, second and third in the opening round. Meanwhile none of the five lefties — Kyle Schwarber, Ben Rice, Caglianone, Bryce Harper and Munetaka Murakami — tallied more 10, and among them, only Schwarber advanced to the second round.
The Royals slugger found himself in fourth after four batters, but withstood a challenge from Rice. However, when Caminero hit his ninth on the way to 12 total, Caglianone was eliminated.
Ultimately, Jordan Walker prevailed in the Derby on a thrilling walk-off finish against Philly favorite Kyle Schwarber.
After Schwarber clubbed 11 homers to send the crowd into a frenzy, Walker found himself sitting on eight with one swing left in the finals. Batters who end on a homer are allowed unlimited swings after that until a ball doesn’t go over the fence, and Walker took full advantage, hitting four in a row to upend Schwarber.
In doing so, he became the first Cardinals player to win the Derby.
Pete Grathoff talked to the Caglianones about Jac’s father, Jeff, throwing to Jac in the Derby.
No matter the outcome Monday night, Caglianone will be a winner because of who will be throwing to him: Jeff Caglianone, his dad. Father and son practiced on the Camden Yards field on Sunday, a day later than planned. They hoped to do it Saturday but were rained out. So they worked in the cages and began forming a plan.
“It’s funny. We talked about that yesterday,” Jeff Caglianone said Sunday. “He was looking (for pitches) a little bit up and in, and then I was throwing him some pitches down, and he was hammering them. As long as he gets a barrel to it, we’ll be OK.”
The Caglianones have Home Run Derby history, as dad pitched to his son at the 2024 Arizona Fall league event.
David Lesky ruminates on the first half of the season.
There has absolutely been some good. We’ve seen some of those young hitters have big moments. We’ve seen great moments like Stephen Kolek’s complete game, the crazy game against the Phillies, the walkoff against the Angels and others. But this was supposed to be a year to compete for the division title, not be the worst team in baseball. The Rockies are a half-game better! Some of it is injuries. The start was just bad baseball. Cole Ragans, Vinnie Pasquantino, Salvador Perez and the bullpen in general just weren’t good enough. But as I’ve said, the injuries piled up, and they couldn’t really overcome that brutal start. The 40-48 first half of 1986 might be more disappointing than this, only because they were coming off the title, but even so, this is pretty close.
Mike Gillespie at Royals Keep raises three questions the Royals should think about during the break.
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