Kansas City Royals' lefty outfielder Jac Caglianone is breaking out into a star slugger, but an injured groin could have him sidelined moving forward.
Between Salvador Perez' struggles, Vinnie Pasquantino losing much of the power he had last year, and starting pitching constantly being nagged by injuries, the Royals have struggled mightily in 2026.
A team will lots of hope coming into the year is just 35-50, but not all things have gone poorly.
Caglianone, drafted with the sixth overall pick in the stacked 2024 draft, has been an extreme bright spot for Kansas City. The slugger is slashing .265/.337/.481 with 14 home runs and 30 RBI, good for a 129 OPS+ and 2.1 bWAR on the year.
Recently, he's been on an absolute tear. Caglianone is hitting .316 with eight home runs in his last 20 games, including three different multi-HR outputs.
However, the injury bug struck again as Kansas City's young star was scratched from Sunday's lineup against the Chicago White Sox with left groin soreness.
According to manager Matt Quataro, "Cags" woke up Sunday with soreness that didn't improve throughout the day and didn't loosen up pregame. He was then scratched shortly before first pitch.
Caglianone's status is currently unclear and he's set to be reevaluated throughout Kansas City's off-day on Monday.
"They're going to reevaluate," Quataro said, per MLB.com. "Obviously, we're going home tonight. We'll see how it feels and see if we have to do any further testing or anything."
The Royals play their next game at home on Tuesday against the Tampa Bay Rays in a three-game set. Caglianone's status should become more clear by then.
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