Kansas City Royals Call Up Main Competition to Jacob Wilson for AL Rookie of the Year

The Kansas City Royals are just two games above .500 at 31-29, eight games back of the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers. While their pitching staff has been one of the best in the American League, giving up a league-best 201 runs (tied with Texas), their offense has been one of the worst in baseball at scoring runs.

Kansas City's 194 runs scored this year is tied for No. 28 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, while the Colorado Rockies (184) are the lone team behind each of them. Luckily, the Royals have a hot shot prospect they are calling up in last year's No. 6 overall selection, Jac Caglianone.

The A's had the opportunity to select Caglianone with the fourth overall pick, but instead went with Nick Kurtz, who was the No. 1 player on their board due to his advanced approach. Kurtz made it to the big leagues at the end of April, and is currently on the IL with a strained left hip flexor.

But it's another A's rookie, Jacob Wilson, that is currently the runaway favorite to win the American League's Rookie of the Year award. Caglianone is one player that could put up the numbers to make this a interesting race, however.

Wilson was also selected No. 6 overall by the A's in the 2023 MLB Draft, and after making a brief debut last season before also missing time due to injury, he came into this season with added muscle and has been a key piece to the A's offense.

Through 57 games played, Wilson is batting .357, which ranks third in all of baseball behind Aaron Judge (.391) and Freddie Freeman (.365). The A's shortstop also has a .396 OBP and has struck out just 14 times this season in 241 plate appearances. He's been incredible.

Caglianone has been putting up similar numbers in the minor leagues, albeit with more power. He has played 49 games in the minors this season, largely in Double-A, and has hit .323 with a .391 OBP, 15 home runs, 56 RBI, and was actually performing better when he got to Triple-A than he did at his first stop.

The key stat that pops off the page for him so far this season is his strikeout rate, which has sat at just 20%. Given that he's right out of college and he has 70 grade power, it wouldn't be abnormal for him to be striking out a bit more as he adjusts to the pro game. Apparently there were no adjustments necessary.

In his small sample of Triple-A games (11 of them) he struck out just 16% of the time, too, so there is a decent chance that he hits the ground running when he gets to the big leagues.

When he debuts on Tuesday, Caglianone will be joining Kurtz and Houston's Cam Smith as 2024 first round picks to make their MLB debuts this season. There is still some worry about the Royals lefty bat chasing pitches out of the zone, but given their lack of offense this season, they're taking a chance that this move will provide a boost.

If Caglianone is able to bring the boom to Kansas City and help slug them into postseason position, then he could end up getting a decent look in the Rookie of the Year voting, despite the tremendous numbers that Wilson has put up. If he hit somewhere around .280 with 20+ homers and helped the Royals play games in October, then that may be enough to sway some votes.

We may now have a race on our hands, folks.