Much like Patrick Mahomes did for Chiefs, Bobby Witt Jr. renewing faith in Royals
As the Royals on Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium were fading into a 6-2 loss to Arizona, general manager J.J. Picollo sat on a couch in his suite watching the game on television.
“We’re down, we don’t really have much going,” he said Wednesday. “That game had that feeling.”
Still, when Bobby Witt Jr.’s turn at the plate came up, Picollo said with a smile, he went back to his seat looking over the field. The better to enjoy watching the emerging phenomenon of the 24-year-old superstar in the making.
“Because,” he said, “you never know what you’re going to see.”
That feeling is so pervasive now, he’d also say, that “it’s almost like every time he finishes one at-bat, you start counting hitters until he’s coming back up because you want to see him again.”
Anyone watching the Royals has their own version of that vibe when it comes to the electrifying Witt — who entering the weekend series against the Cubs leads the American League in batting average (.344) and hits (141), sits fifth in RBIs (70) and third in stolen bases (23) and stands second in MLB in triples (10).
Maybe you’re like a friend of mine, who was texting me all through Witt’s bid to hit for the cycle on Monday night — part of his uncanny 16 hits in his first 23 at-bats since returning from the All-Star break.
Or maybe you’re like Royals star Sal Perez, who at every turn sees more evidence of what he’s been saying since at least spring training: that Witt is on his way toward being the best to ever wear a Royals uniform — a feat that will take some doing given George Brett’s Hall of Fame career.
Or maybe you’re like fans who see in Witt the most exhilarating point of all: a key reason it feels safe to believe once more in the Royals, who also have been bolstered by a radical makeover in their starting pitching and the 34-year-old Perez’s gulps from the fountain of youth.
At 56-47, they have won as many games as they did all last season and are at least trending toward making good on the implications of their monumental offseason signing of Witt to a 14-year contract (11 guaranteed) — a deal that Picollo called “a statement” both to fans and the team “that we’re going to commit.”
They certainly committed to the right guy at the right time, in more ways than one, as Witt is reveling in a breakout season that has put him in the top echelon of baseball not just offensively, but also because of his range and penchant for the spectacular at shortstop.
Picollo marvels at Witt’s range to run down popups: “There’s nobody I’ve ever seen like that.”
By way of example, he pointed to the catch he made going away before whirling to throw it in to second baseman Nick Loftin ... who relayed it to first for a double play against the Dodgers.
“Who thinks that way?” Picollo said. “It’s like a quarterback seeing the field; it just slows down for him.”
We’ll come back to a quarterback analogy that speaks more broadly to what makes this feel so enticing … and familiar.
But the beauty of watching this unfold in Witt’s third season, a step further certified by his performance in the Home Run Derby the night before the All-Star Game, is that it feels like it’s just starting.
“You’ve already seen otherworldly types of things,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “But I do think he’s going to get better.”
‘Stop-what-you’re-doing-and-watch kind of player’
At The K against Cleveland on June 30, Witt thrashed a ball into the left field corner that decades of watching baseball and logic and physics said would be a double.
But Witt being Witt, from the instant he left the batter’s box and burst into warp speed you knew he was thinking triple — which the legendary Hank Aaron quite aptly called the most exciting play in baseball.
“No chance he was going to stop,” Quatraro said afterward.
His burst into full gallop evoked a rare sort of anticipation — a feeling that made me realize I was starting to involuntarily rise up from my seat in the press box.
That’s against all decorum, and I caught myself well before he began a headfirst slide that Picollo joked started “like 25 feet from the bag” — with an airborne launch that Picollo recalled a clubhouse man saying looked like “Superman” in motion.
Maybe that image accounts for why I can only remember that sort of impulse coming over me a handful of times in 35 years in the business. With the Paris Olympics beginning, I’m most conscious of that at Olympics past: like watching Usain Bolt run in the Beijing, London and Rio Olympics, and Simone Biles soar in Rio and Michael Phelps winning his eighth gold medal in Beijing.
When it comes to the Royals in 2014 and 2015 and too many Patrick Mahomes’ tales to astonish to remember, the feeling I remember most is sitting still but often shaking my head subtly in disbelief.
But they’re all from the same family that led to Jack Buck’s immortal call of Kirk Gibson’s home run in the 1988 World Series.
“I don’t believe,” he said, “what I just saw!”
Or as Quatraro put it when I asked him about Witt on that June night:
“He is a stop-what-you’re-doing-and-watch kind of player.”
Much as it is with Mahomes.
“One hundred percent,” Perez said that night.
Parallels to Patrick Mahomes
Yes, the games and their roles within them are so different that parallels can seem a stretch. Witt’s sphere of influence on any given game is hard to approximate with that of Mahomes, and the rhythms and dynamics of the seasons are so distinct (162 games to 17, for instance) as to make them incomparable.
And, as Picollo points out, we likely wouldn’t be thinking this way if Mahomes played for, say, the Chargers.
But … he plays here.
And here’s what reverberates about the duo:
Each is a generational talent who has captured the imaginations of fans and teammates and revived faith that was dwindling for so long.
While there’s a dramatic difference between Mahomes leading the Chiefs to three Super Bowl titles in five seasons and Witt hoping to stir the Royals back into the postseason for the first time since 2015, there is a comparable sense of thrill and hope in Witt’s emergence.
Picollo felt it again on Tuesday night in the bottom of the first inning.
“People are very aware of him coming to the plate,” he said. “So there’s this heroic type of feeling he gives fans, and that’s what I think Mahomes does as well.”
Those hardly are the only similarities between the pair. And we don’t just mean that they both have an affinity for, and financial stake in, Whataburger.
Each prospered by the longtime MLB careers of their fathers, and each was trained by Bobby Stroupe — who a few years ago spoke with me about their common denominators.
Each, he said, has the “it” factor that comes from abnormal talent and similarly driven mindsets.
Each has true and pure love of his respective game and is possessed with what Stroupe called “incredibly positive” energy — including, he said, that he’d never heard either complain or make a negative comment.
“A candle doesn’t burn out by lighting other candles,” he said. “And those two guys, they get it: They understand that energy gives energy. And the only way to succeed is to connect with people.”
That positivity fuels something else, too: their shared beliefs that there are no boundaries and that expectations shouldn’t feel like burdens.
‘There were some tears that came to my eyes’
One other admirable trait (at least) that they share: Each is remarkably likable and easy to root for.
They’re confident without being cocky, treasured as teammates, project humility and engage easily with fans.
Boyish, innocent and humble, Picollo called Witt.
And that was on display on Thursday at Bishop Miege, site of the Bobby Witt Jr. Baseball ProCamp sponsored by Community America Credit Union.
(After the camp, Witt and Community America presented a check for $45,000 to Sarah Nauser, whose name and courage everyone should know, in support of her Sarah’s Soldiers fight against ALS; all proceeds from the camp went to Sarah’s Soldiers and the Answering The Call charity for first responders.)
On yet another blazing day, Witt spent several hours posing and playing with hundreds of campers ranging from first to eighth grade who welcomed him with “Bobby, Bobby, Bobby” chants.
“Wow, that was cool,” he said as he took the microphone.
His tone suggested he meant that sincerely. And, indeed, he was so much in his element that he was among those who raised his hand near the end when the camp director asked the kids who was ready to eat.
As even-keeled as Witt normally is, he seemed truly moved by the greeting as he spoke briefly to the broader group before he made his way around for pictures, chatter and high-fives with smaller groups.
When I asked him about that afterward, he said, “There were some tears that came to my eyes, 100%. It’s one of those things where not too long ago I was in their shoes.”
Now, they all want to follow in his footsteps.
And, like the rest of us, to watch where his take him — every at-bat at a time.
This story was originally published July 26, 2024 at 6:30 AM.