How special was Bobby Witt Jr.’s inside-the-park home run? We looked at the numbers
Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. has created a lot of highlights this season.
Witt has displayed his five-tool ability multiple times at Kauffman Stadium. There was his walk-off grand slam against the Minnesota Twins. He also nearly hit for the cycle against the Washington Nationals.
On Monday night, Witt elevated his game to the next level. Witt hit an inside-the-park home run against the Seattle Mariners. In the fifth inning, he hit a 97 mph fastball into the right-field gap off Mariners starter Logan Gilbert.
The baseball got past Mariners outfielder Dominic Canzone. He appeared to misjudge the line drive — or perhaps lost it in the lights — as the ball rolled all the way to the wall.
Witt was off to the races. He went home-to-home in 14.3 seconds to record his 22nd home run of the season.
How special was the feat?
Witt turned in the second inside-the-park home run in all of MLB this season. The last Royals player to do it was Whit Merrifield in 2019 against the Detroit Tigers.
Witt also turned in the fourth-fastest home-to-home time in the Statcast Era (since 2015), per MLB.com researcher Sarah Slangs. It was the fastest inside-the-park home run since August of 2017.
He trails Dee Strange-Gordon and Byron Buxton (twice) on the list. Strange-Gordon raced home in 14.2 seconds in 2015. Meanwhile, Buxton did it on two separate occasions. He turned in 14.1 seconds in 2016 and 13.9 seconds in 2017.
“I guess the baseball gods were on my side,” Witt said. “Just with the first two ABs (at-bats), I didn’t really hit them hard — just put them in a good spot to get a hit out of them. The lights helped me out a little bit, I think.”
Witt ranks in the 100th percentile for sprint speed — placing him at the top of MLB. He has a 30.4 ft/sec sprint speed and 190 competitive runs, per Baseball Savant. He averages 4.14 seconds from home plate to first base this season.
The Royals have three of the top four sprint speeds in MLB. Royals outfielder Dairon Blanco and new acquisition Bubba Thompson each have 30.4 ft/sec sprint speeds as well. They trail Cincinnati Reds superstar Elly De La Cruz (30.5 ft/sec) on the list.
“I saw the ball go back and I was definitely pushing for him to go all the way around the bases,” Blanco said after his walk-off bunt. “I knew he could do it.”
The Royals value speed in their lineup. Witt leads the team with 34 steals. Meanwhile, Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia has 18 and Blanco has 14.
“It’s fun to watch him run,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said.
