Kansas City's 'watch and see' attitude in '24 Draft paying dividends

This story was excerpted from Anne Rogers’ Royals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

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.

“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.