Kansas City Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. is chosen as MLB Pipeline’s top prospect
Kansas City Royals first-round draft pick and reigning Minor League Player of the Year Bobby Witt Jr. earned the No. 1 spot in MLBPipeline.com’s annual prospect rankings.
Witt, 21, will vie for the Royals starting third base job in spring training after having been chosen Minor League Player of the Year last season by both Baseball America and USA Today.
The Royals open their Cactus League slate of exhibition games on Friday.
Witt, the son of the former major-league pitcher with the same name, won national high school player of the year honors in 2019. The Royals selected the 6-foot-1 right-handed hitting shortstop in that year’s MLB Draft with the No. 2 overall pick out of Colleyville Heritage High School in Texas.
Last year in his first full season in the minors, Witt slashed .290/.361/.575 with 33 home runs, 35 doubles, 29 stolen bases and 97 RBIs in 123 games (61 at Double-A, 62 at Triple-A).
A rained-out game in which he had a stolen base wiped out his chance to have the third season of at least 30 steals, 30 doubles and 30 home runs in the minors since 1990.
Baseball America ranked Witt as its No. 3 overall prospect, while ESPN.com’s Kiley McDaniel and Fangraphs.com each ranked Witt as the No. 2 prospect in the sport.
MLB.com senior writer Jim Callis called Witt the second-best shortstop prospect he’d seen come out in the MLB Draft in the past 30 years, behind only Alex Rodriguez.
