Bobby Witt Jr., the Kansas City Royals’ rookie phenom, scratched from starting lineup
Highly touted rookie Royals third baseman Bobby Witt Jr. was scratched from the starting lineup shortly before Sunday afternoon’s series finale against the New York Yankees at Kauffman Stadium.
Witt got hit on the right wrist by a pitch from Yankees relief pitcher Clay Holmes in the eighth inning of Saturday night’s loss. He remained in the game, but the Royals said he was scratched from Sunday’s lineup with a right wrist contusion.
Witt, ranked the No.1 prospect in the minors by MLBPipeline.com this spring, played in each of the team’s first 19 games.
The 21-year-old former No. 2 overall draft pick made his major-league debut on Opening Day, the most anticipated debut for a Royals prospect since Alex Gordon in 2007. Witt drove in the winning run in his debut game.
Witt has batted .216 with a .247 on-base percentage and .311 slugging percentage through his first month in the big leagues.
On Saturday night, Witt extended his current hitting streak to nine games with a single in the fourth inning. He’s batting (.314, 11 for 35) with three doubles and two RBIs during that streak
While MLBPipeline.com puts Witt atop the prospect rankings, Baseball America ranked him as its No. 3 overall prospect, while ESPN.com’s Kiley McDaniel and Fangraphs.com each ranked him as their No. 2 prospect.
The son of 16-year MLB pitcher and former No. 3 overall draft pick, Bob Sr., Witt went second overall in the 2019 MLB Draft out of Colleyville Heritage High School in Texas. He won Gatorade National Player of the Year honors as a senior in high school.
In his lone full-length season in the minors last year, 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).
The 6-foot-1, right-handed hitting infielder Witt came within a rained-out game the third season of at least 30 steals, 30 doubles and 30 home runs in the minors since 1990. He had a stolen base wiped by the rainout, which kept him from reaching 30 steals.
This story was originally published May 1, 2022 at 1:07 PM.
