How KC Royals’ ‘Nicky Bobby’ tandem became tight, despite the potential for tension
Royals second baseman Nicky Lopez and third baseman Bobby Witt Jr. don’t just share the same infield.
They’re represented by the same agency. Their lockers were side-by-side in spring training, and they’re also side-by-side at Kauffman Stadium. And their jerseys, Witt’s No. 7 and Lopez’s No. 8, even come one after the other in numerical order.
Last week, in the Kansas City clubhouse during the Royals’ season-opening home stand, they joked they should just remove the wall dividing their lockers and create common area for their clothes and equipment.
When a reporter suggested that they’d be left with a space known as Bobby and Nicky’s, Lopez leaned in with a grin and a correction.
The way to say it is “Nicky Bobby,” Lopez said — an homage to Will Ferrell’s racecar-driver character from the film “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.” Witt quickly agreed before both bounded away to start their pre-game routines.
“’Nicky Bobby,’ that’s gotta catch fire, for sure,” Lopez said a day later (the clothing and apparel company Roto Wear has already put out a Nicky Bobby T-shirt playing off the Shake and Bake motto from the Talladega Nights movie).
Seemingly in the blink of an eye, Lopez has gone from the little brother of the Royals — he was the youngest everyday position player in their lineup last season — to the older half of a buddy-cop duo patrolling the KC infield alongside Witt, the team’s 21-year-old phenom.
They may not have the swagger of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in the “Bad Boys” movies, nor the frantic and unpredictable nature of Danny Glover and Mel Gibson in the “Lethal Weapon” series. Without some serious technology upgrades, Lopez and Witt can’t even be put in the category of Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie from “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.”
But they’ve quickly become comfortable with being viewed as a tandem. And they both made awe-inspiring defensive plays in the first two games of the Royals’ season-opening series.
Lopez, 27, made a full-extension, diving catch to snare a line drive on Opening Day that had 18-year veteran pitcher Zack Greinke calling it one of the best plays he’d ever seen.
Two days later, in extra innings of their second game of the season, Witt combined with catcher Salvador Perez to make a run-saving play. Witt’s diving stop and throw to the plate, where Perez made a great play to haul in the throw and make the tag, cut down what would have been the go-ahead run.
Offensively, the two teamed up to drive in the winning run in during the season opener. After Michael A. Taylor’s leadoff walk in the eighth inning, Lopez’s perfectly executed sacrifice bunt moved the go-ahead run into scoring position. Then, with two outs, Witt (1 for 4, RBI) delivered the double that drove in the decisive run.
“If we’re going to get to where we want to be — ultimately, the World Series and bring another one back to the city — we’re going to need Bobby,” Lopez said.
Paying it forward
Lopez made his debut for the Royals on May 14, 2019. He’d just come off a season in the minors in which he’d won the organization’s George Brett Minor League Hitter of the Year award in 2018.
A slick-fielding, left-handed hitting former fifth-round draft pick out of Creighton in 2016, Lopez had made a bit of a name for himself in the organization with success throughout the minors.
He remembers fondly the text messages of encouragement he received from such established Royals players as Alex Gordon, Whit Merrifield and Hunter Dozier.
Their words of encouragement kept Lopez’s fire burning as he waited for his time to come in the majors.
Merrifield, who’d been in the middle of his first All-Star season in 2019, moved from second base to the outfield and paved the way for Lopez to play everyday at second base.
Less than a month after Lopez made his major-league debut, the Royals selected Witt, the right-handed hitting shortstop and national high school player of the year, with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft.
As others had done before him, as well as for him, Lopez reached out via text to Witt while the young top pick made a name for himself in the minors. Witt also heard from several of the other veterans.
Because the two are represented by Octagon and Witt’s father works as an agent for the company, Lopez and Witt connected before they’d ever shared a clubhouse together.
When they did finally meet, the two hit it off immediately.
Before spring training this year, Witt had already been around the Royals’ current big-league core for several seasons. He was part of their 60-man group for Spring Training 2.0 coming out of the pandemic in 2020. He also spent last year’s spring training in big-league camp.
When Witt started spending extended periods training in Arizona, he knew he had a local resource in Lopez, who made Arizona an offseason base of operation.
“He’s given me recommendations on places to eat and other things when I was out in Arizona, because I knew he lived out there,” Witt said.
Room for everyone
The buddy duo could’ve hit a real awkward point last spring training when Lopez struggled badly at the plate — to the point that the organization optioned him back to the minors for the first time since he’d made his debut.
Meanwhile, Witt started getting the lion’s share of the playing time at second base in Lopez’s place. Some pundits and many on social media were ready to see that change made on a more permanent basis.
“I’m not going to lie,” Lopez said. “When I was in spring training and I was struggling before I got sent down, he was playing second base. I was like, ‘Alright. There’s the number one prospect in all of baseball playing second base.’
“You start thinking about that and you start worrying more.”
Now, Lopez just considers it one more reason that it was “blessing in disguise” to get sent down when he did. That hard reset forced him to get back to being the hitter he’d always been as he was coming up through the minors.
Lopez never let last spring get in the way of his relationship with Witt, last year’s Royals George Brett Minor League Hitter of the Year.
“I didn’t look at it as I’m not going to help this guy out because he plays the same position as me,” Lopez said. “That’s just not who I am.
“Naturally, since I was young, I’ve wanted to be a leader. That’s not what leaders do. I’m a big fan of his. Whether he plays the infield or not, I’m still going to be a big fan of his. That’s what was going through my mind.”
When Adalberto Mondesi got hurt on the final day of spring training last year, Lopez was the choice to take over as the everyday shortstop in the majors. Ironically, that put Merrifield back at second base.
Lopez, who’d played shortstop in the minors, responded by leading the majors in outs above average (25) and runs prevented (19). He recorded the highest fielding percentage of any shortstop in the AL. He also set a franchise record with 72 consecutive errorless games at shortstop from May 5 through August 13.
At the plate, Lopez became the first Royals left-handed batter to hit .300 since Eric Hosmer did so in 2017, as well as the first Royals shortstop to play at least 75% of his games at that position to bat .300. He recorded career highs in hits (149), runs (78), triples (six), RBIs (43), extra-base hits (29), walks (49), stolen bases (22), batting average (.300) and on-base percentage (.365).
“He’s the type of guy that’s for the team,” said Witt, Baseball America’s Minor League Player of the Year in 2021. “He’s a team-first guy. That’s why he’s an unbelievable person, not only a great person but also a great teammate.
“Then, what he did to transform himself. And he should have been a Gold Glover. He hit .300, which is unbelievably hard to do in the big leagues. Just how he switched that mindset and turned it on, it was awesome to watch. I was super-excited for him. I was rooting for him the whole way. And doing it at the shortstop position, it was incredible.”
Witt, a natural shortstop whom MLBPipeline.com selected as the No. 1 prospect in baseball this winter, moved to third base this season as Lopez shifted back to second. Merrifield went to the outfield once again, and Mondesi has reclaimed the shortstop job.
Lopez said he’s looking forward to being teammates with Witt for years to come, regardless of which positions they’re playing.
“There’s room for all of us,” Lopez said. “That’s the thing about it. If we want to move in the direction and play in the postseason and get back to World Series, it has got to be selfless, not selfish.
“We’ve got to all play our part. Obviously, Bobby his whole career was playing shortstop. Now, he’s playing third base. He did it for the team.”
This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 9:51 AM.
