Caglianone's first big league knock? Scott says not so fast ...

ST. LOUIS -- When the 98.4 mph liner left his bat, Royals top prospect Jac Caglianone was thinking more about how he had hit the curveball from Cardinals starter Andre Pallante off the end of his bat and not how that ball was now sailing for the gap in right-center field.

Then Caglianone realized center fielder Victor Scott II was ranging back on the ball.

Then he saw Scott corral the hard-hit ball in the gap to take away a potential first MLB hit from the rookie.

“Hit the ball pretty well,” Caglianone said after the Royals’ 10-7 win over the Cardinals. “No cigar. Victor Scott is pretty good out there. He made a great play.”

Minutes after receiving a standing ovation before the first at-bat of his MLB career, Caglianone laced the fourth pitch he saw from Pallante to the outfield. As the crowd roared, Scott used his blinding speed to cover 92 feet, per Statcast, to catch the ball before crashing into the wall. Scott hit 29 feet per second to run down the drive.

Caglianone, 22, was the sixth overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft out of the University of Florida. The lefty slugger earned his MLB promotion after slashing .322/.389/.593 with 15 homers and 56 RBIs in 50 games in the Minor Leagues this season.

The left-handed slugger went 0-for-5 on Tuesday night, but four of his outs were hard-hit (95+ mph, per Statcast).

He began what ended up as a six-run fifth inning with a 112.1 mph groundout to Nolan Arenado, who ranged from his defensive positioning in the shift to snag the ball and throw Caglianone out at first.

“It was one of those off the bat where I was like, ‘All right, possibly,’” Caglianone said. “Booking it, and then halfway down the line, I was like, ‘Well, that’s platinum glove Nolan Arenado at third, so probably not.”

After the Royals batted around in the fifth, Caglianone ended the frame with a 96.9 mph grounder right to first baseman Willson Contreras.

In his final at-bat of the game, Caglianone recorded his hardest-hit ball yet: A 113.9 mph groundout to second baseman Brendan Donovan.

“You can hear it, for sure,” shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. said of Caglianone’s exit velocities. “You could just tell from being in Spring Training, watching his batting practice, hitting in the cage. When he’s swinging, getting the barrel on the ball, it’s coming off hard.”

If Caglianone keeps that up, the hits will come soon. He just has to navigate the elite defense at the big league level, too.