Hamstring injury forces rookie phenom Bobby Witt Jr. out of Sunday’s Royals game
Rising star Bobby Witt Jr. came out of Sunday’s series finale with the Tampa Bay Rays at Kauffman Stadium after just one inning.
The young Royals shortstop left the game with right-hamstring tightness, according to the Royals. The team called the move “precautionary” and said his status is day-to-day.
Nicky Lopez entered the game to play shortstop in the second inning of the Royals’ series-clinching 4-2 win.
Witt had testing done both with the training and medical staff at the ballpark as well as off-site to evaluate the severity of the injury.
“As of now, just a sore, tight hamstring,” Witt said in the clubhouse after the game. “Nothing really other than that.”
Witt did not have a ball hit to him during his only inning in the field, but he drove in the Royals’ first run on an RBI single to right with one out in the first inning to score Whit Merrifield, who had reached second with a leadoff double.
Witt also stole second base in that inning, his team-leading 20th steal of the season. With that stolen base, he joined Pat Kelly (1969), Willie Wilson (1978) and Tom Goodwin (1995) as the only Royals rookies to steal 20 within the first 95 games of a season.
The stolen base is also when the hamstring issue came up.
“It’s just always not my favorite thing, coming out of the game,” Witt said. “But then Nicky came in and did his job, did what he did. It was a good win.”
Lopez had two hits, including a triple after entering the game.
“He felt it and it’s not something that he’s had an issue with before, which is amazing — to play at as high a level as he has played at his whole life, to not really have anything bother him before muscular-wise,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said.
“So yeah, the level of concern is high because this kid has got a very high pain tolerance. And we’ve seen that, getting hit by pitches and he just bounces back. We were very cautious and concerned, we still are. We’re going to keep an eye on him.”
The Royals’ former top pick, taken No. 2 overall in the 2019 MLB Draft, Witt made his major-league debut on Opening Day this season after being honored as the Minor League Player of the Year by Baseball America and USA Today in 2021.
Witt, 22, entered the day batting .256 with a .299 on-base percentage and a .457 slugging percentage.
Along with leading the Royals in stolen bases, he also went into the game as the team leader in home runs (14) and RBIs (50) and was tied for the team lead in doubles (19) through 90 games.
Witt, who has also committed a team-high 14 errors, began this season as the club’s starting third baseman. He took over as the starting shortstop in May after Adalberto Mondesi’s season-ending knee injury.
This story was originally published July 24, 2022 at 2:44 PM.
