As Bobby Witt prepares for milestone game, one MLB stat shows his unique greatness
Bobby Witt Jr. has accomplished a lot in a short time with the Royals.
In addition to being a batting champion and an All-Star, Witt has won Silver Slugger and Gold Glove awards. And here’s the crazy thing: Witt won’t turn 25 for another six weeks.
Another wild thing to note: When the Royals play the Rays on Wednesday night, it will be Witt’s 500th career game. In that short time, Witt has been the season league-leader in triples (2023), hits and batting average (2024) and he has the most doubles in MLB this year.
Witt, who carries a 20-game hitting streak into Wednesday’s game, has failed to collect a hit just twice this season (April 2 at Milwaukee and April 7 vs. Minnesota). In the second half of last season, there were only 10 games in which Witt didn’t have a hit, but he drew at least one walk in four of those contests.
In his last 94 games, Witt has batted .336 with 22 home runs, 41 walks and 55 strikeouts.
Here’s one other bonkers stat that shows Witt’s unique greatness. MLB Network noted that since 2024 Witt is batting above .300 and has a slugging percentage over .500 against three types of pitches: fastballs, breaking balls and off-speed pitches.
He’s the only player in Major League Baseball to do that. Like the baseball cards Witt likes to collect, he’s 1 of 1.
Praise for Bobby Witt Jr.
ESPN’s Buster Olney picked Witt as the best shortstop in baseball so far this season.
“This is a coin flip between Witt and the Mets’ Francisco Lindor, but we’ll go with Witt, who is a little better on the bases and in the field,” Olney wrote. “Indeed, with 1.5 WAR entering Sunday, Witt is on pace for 8.7 WAR — not much off his 9.4 total of 2024, even though the home runs have yet to come in bunches.”
MLB Network’s Mark DeRosa, who will manage Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, lavished praise on Witt earier this week.
“If I’m starting a franchise today, give me No. 7 from the Kansas City Royals,” DeRosa said. “He is showing up every day to be the greatest player that this game has ever seen.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2025 at 8:46 AM.
