{"id":530405,"date":"2026-01-21T05:46:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T05:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/530405\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T05:46:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T05:46:29","slug":"kansas-city-royals-unlikely-to-pursue-jarren-duran-opening-door-for-younger-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/530405\/","title":{"rendered":"Kansas City Royals Unlikely to Pursue Jarren Duran, Opening Door for Younger Talent"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kansas City Royals <\/a>have been in the active market for an impact bat, preferably in the outfield.<\/p>\n

After acquiring outfielder Isaac Collins from the Milwaukee Brewers, Kansas City remained active, making calls on Boston Red Sox superstar Jarren Duran.<\/p>\n

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Duran is one of the most valuable players in the MLB, as his 8.7 WAR in 2024 was fifth best in the MLB.<\/p>\n

However, Boston’s asking price for Duran is quite steep, as they would want ace pitcher Cole Ragans in return. With the addition of Collins, Kansas City is unlikely to trade for Duran.<\/p>\n

Fans are now concerned with the offensive star power in Kansas City’s lineup without Duran, but what if I told you they had two in house solutions?<\/p>\n

Enter in Jac Caglianone and Carter Jensen.<\/p>\n

\"Kansas<\/p>\n

Kansas City Royals Outfielder Jac Caglianone (14) | \u00a0\u00a9 Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Caglianone made a name for himself at the University of Florida where he was a two-way player for the Gators. The slugger had a legendary career in college, crushing 75 homers, driving in 189 RBI’s and having an OPS of 1.207 over 165 collegiate games.<\/p>\n

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Caglianone’s elite hitting tools got him drafted number six overall in the 2024 MLB Draft by the Kansas City Royals.<\/p>\n

The slugger was one of the most prolific hitters in the minor leagues last season with a ridiculous .924 OPS over 94 games, further cementing his elite hitting upside.<\/p>\n

Caglianone’s ridiculous start to his 2025 minor league season promoted Kansas City to him up earlier than expected.<\/p>\n

The top prospect made his MLB debut on June 3, 2025, where he served as the designated hitter, going 0-for-5.<\/p>\n

Although Caglianone’s debut didn’t go as planned, he would display his raw power than made him such an intriguing prospect in the following games.<\/p>\n

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Caglianone would go on to hit seven home runs 62 games played, with one of them being a top five swing of the season:<\/p>\n

Caglianone will dazzle in 2026 with increased opportunities, but so will rookie catcher Carter Jensen.<\/p>\n

Jensen (22) is Kansas City’s number one overall prospect in their farm system, and rightfully so.<\/p>\n

The young catcher made his MLB debut on September 2, 2025 where he immediately dazzled.<\/p>\n

In only 60 plate appearances, Jensen had a phenomenal .941 OPS and a 161 OPS+, showing every indication that he is already an excellent bat in this league. <\/p>\n

Jensen has a great shot at taking over at catcher once longtime Royal Salvador Perez retires. However, with Jensen’s strong 2025 campaign, Kansas City should give him a multitude of opportunities in 2026.<\/p>\n

\"Kansas<\/p>\n

Kansas City Royals Catcher Carter Jensen (22) | \u00a9 Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

With the emergence of Jensen and slow rise of Caglianone, I fully expect Kansas City to get increased offensive production, even without trading for a guy like Duran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kansas City Royals have been in the active market for an impact bat, preferably in the outfield.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2387],"tags":[5,48,21682,230,4362,231,604,936,2123,55,2596,2595,59,4,1586,252,373],"class_list":{"0":"post-530405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-royals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston-red-sox","10":"tag-carter-jensen","11":"tag-cole-ragans","12":"tag-isaac-collins","13":"tag-jac-caglianone","14":"tag-jarren-duran","15":"tag-kansas","16":"tag-kansas-city","17":"tag-kansas-city-royals","18":"tag-kansascity","19":"tag-kansascityroyals","20":"tag-milwaukee-brewers","21":"tag-mlb","22":"tag-mlb-draft","23":"tag-royals","24":"tag-salvador-perez"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115931512854460675","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}