Friday, July 25

Welcome to this edition of the Royals Beat newsletter. My name is Anne Rogers, and I’ll be delivering news and insight to your inbox all season long. Thanks for following along!

In December 2023, the Royals were disappointed after learning they would pick sixth in the 2024 Draft. They had dropped down in the MLB Draft lottery system; coming off a 106-loss '23 season, the club had been tied with the Athletics and Rockies for the best odds at receiving the No. 1 overall pick.

Instead, the Royals would pick sixth. And they would watch two division opponents pick higher than them (Guardians at No. 1 and White Sox at No. 5).

Kansas City’s suite at the Gaylord Resort & Convention Center that evening was quiet and frustrated.

But then scouting director Brian Bridges, who had just been hired a few months before and would be taking his first Royals player at No. 6 the following year, stood up.

“We’re going to be all right,” Bridges told the room of officials. “We’re going to get a good player. Watch and see.”

There was no use dwelling on what could have been, Bridges emphasized. The work to build their board and figure out the best player available had begun.

Seven months later, the Royals selected Jac Caglianone with the No. 6 pick in the 2024 Draft. Less than a year after that, Caglianone, MLB’s No. 10 prospect, made his big league debut with Kansas City, as quick and powerful of an ascent as the organization has seen in recent history.

“He got it going in Spring Training and never looked back,” Bridges said. “Come up here and finish it off. There’s only so much you can do in the Minor Leagues. There will be ups and downs, and that’s all part of it.

“It’ll be good for him to be around the guys, for him to understand what it takes to be a big leaguer. He wants to win in a big way.”

Bridges had targeted Caglianone for a long time, but it wasn’t until closer to the Draft that he realized he might actually fall to the Royals. When Bridges heard the A’s, picking at No. 4, were going to select Nick Kurtz, a first baseman out of Wake Forest who made his debut in April this year, the path to Caglianone became clearer.

“[Travis] Bazzana was going No. 1 to Cleveland, and then the Reds going with a pitcher [Chase Burns at No. 2 out of Wake Forest], I thought there was, really, conceivably one team that could stop it,” Bridges said. “That was Colorado [picking third]. Say what you will about the Rockies, they draft a lot of good hitters. That’s the one team who could stop it. And when they took Charlie [Condon, out of Georgia], I was like, ‘It’s going to happen.’”

Kurtz indeed went to the A’s at No. 4. The White Sox selected lefty Hagen Smith out of Arkansas. And then the Royals were on the clock. And Caglianone was still on the board.

“It’s like waking up on Christmas morning for the first time as a kid,” Bridges said. “When you realize you’re going to get that train you wanted for Christmas.”

The train in this instance was Caglianone, a slugger out of Florida who dazzled with massive power. Scouts flocked to his games, and the Royals were well represented at every NCAA Tournament game a year ago.

Bridges relied on his own evaluation, vice president of player personnel Lonnie Goldberg, area scout Nick Presto and many others who watched Caglianone play. Bridges even received a call from Florida head coach Kevin O'Sullivan -- whom Bridges has known since the early 1990s -- urging the Royals not to pass on Caglianone; he was just a “different” player, Bridges remembers O'Sullivan saying.

“You send guys in there, and they all come out with the same answer,” Bridges said. “There was never a ‘No.’ No matter when you went and saw him, he would do something in the game that would amaze you.”

It’s been a whirlwind of a year since the Royals selected Caglianone. Now he’s in the big leagues trying to help the team win. He’s adjusting, still learning and developing on the fly.

But that sixth pick is looking pretty good now.

When Caglianone was driving to Kansas City a week ago to catch the team flight over to St. Louis for his debut, he said he listened to about two songs the entire three-hour drive. The rest of the time was filled with phone calls to the people he cared about most.

One of those calls was to Bridges.

“First words out of his mouth were, ‘I just want to thank you for believing in me,’” Bridges said.

It’s a big series at Kauffman Stadium this week against the Yankees, and the Royals have lined up two of their best starters to open that series.

Rookie Noah Cameron will take the ball on Tuesday night in his biggest test yet -- and he’ll bring his 0.85 ERA to the mound. His performance so far has earned him a spot in the rotation.

“A lot of considerations in there,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “Noah’s been on a good roll. Keep him going.”

Then Kris Bubic, who has a Majors-best 1.43 ERA in 12 starts, will start Wednesday’s game. The Royals gave him extra rest over the past week as they monitor his workload following a 2024 season in which he was on rehab assignment after Tommy John surgery and pitched as a reliever down the stretch. Bubic last started on June 1.

Seth Lugo will start Thursday. With Monday’s off-day, that gives Lugo an extra day of rest after starting Friday’s game against the White Sox, but it also gives Cole Ragans more days of rest in between his starts. Ragans came off the injured list last week and is still building up his stamina; he’ll get more than a week in between before he likely pitches against the A’s this weekend.

Pride Night at The K is returning on Thursday. Start the night off at the Pride Pre-Game Party from 5-6:40 p.m. CT at the Hall of Fame Tent, where there will be a live DJ, photo opportunities and more.

A theme night ticket will get you the Royals Pride Party Pack, which includes a fan, fanny pack, socks and a koolie.

To subscribe to Royals Beat, visit this page and mark "Royals Beat" from our newsletter list. Make sure you're following the Royals or that they're checked as your favorite team.

View Online

© 2025 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

Please review our Privacy Policy.

You (mlb-newsletters@mlb.com) received this message because you registered to receive commercial email messages or purchased a ticket from MLB. 

Please add info@marketing.mlbemail.com to your address book to ensure our messages reach your inbox. If you no longer wish to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com, please unsubscribe or log in and manage your email subscriptions.

Postal Address: MLB.com, c/o MLB Advanced Media, L.P., 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.