Jac Caglianone launches first dinger at home park, Kauffman Stadium

As noted, Caglianone’s time in the bigs so far has been a bit of a slog. He hadn’t left the yard in nearly three weeks. His first home run came on June 19 against the Texas Rangers in a game in which he actually hit two home runs.

But the hits had been sparse since then. Jac Caglianone had been on a 1-for-34 stretch at the plate before his home run knock on Tuesday night.

It was to the point that general manager JJ Picollo was getting questions about the rookie. On Monday, he said the following, per Mark Poulose of KCTV5:

“I have not talked to him since we left to go on the road, but he’s a human being,” Picollo said. “He’s frustrated, you can see the frustration. But if he wasn’t frustrated, that would mean he doesn’t care. So how do we help him just relax a little bit, let the game come to him?

“Right now I think he’s trying to force the game instead of letting the game come to him. A lot of that comes down to guys pitching him really well and pitching to his weaknesses. When he makes that adjustment and starts hitting some mistakes, he’s going to grow in his confidence as well. But trying to keep an eye on his attitude and his confidence level is as much the challenge as it is the physical part.”

Could Tuesday night’s dinger do the trick and get Jac Caglianone back on track? We’ll have to wait to find out.