KC Royals share look at how Bobby Witt Jr. learned he’d made it to the big leagues
The Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr., is No. 1 on Major League Baseball’s list of prospects, but he won’t hold that spot for long.
That’s because the Royals called up Witt to start the season. Witt, the No. 2 overall pick in 2019 draft, is likely to be in the starting lineup Thursday as the Royals open the season against the Cleveland Guardians at Kauffman Stadium.
On Tuesday, Witt was called into manager Mike Matheny’s office at the Royals spring-training facility. As The Star’s Lynn Worthy noted, Royals teammates Salvador Perez, Whit Merrifield and Andrew Benintendi were there waiting, along with general manager J.J. Picollo.
The Royals tweeted a video of Witt learning the news from Matheny.
“Alright, I know we’ve told you for a long time to be patient and to just trust everybody,” Matheny said. “That the opportunity had to be right, the timing had to be right in order for you to be here, and it’s right. And what this group here is about is to help hold you accountable. For you to just keep being you.
“You’re going to have great successes and there are inevitably going to be some struggles. So just keep being you and this group’s here to help you. Keep doing that and you’re going to need to help this group and everybody in that clubhouse. But you should be very proud of yourself. Congratulations! Welcome to the major leagues!”
This story was originally published April 6, 2022 at 11:50 AM.
