Bobby Witt Jr. is the Royals’ future, but only part of it. How he affects what’s next
Bobby Witt Jr. stood between the second- and third-base bags, just one at-bat plus two games left in his breakout season. It’s not exactly a running countdown for a team that could still set a franchise record for losses this weekend, but it had sure felt like one lately.
For 14 days, Witt sat one home run shy of the first 30-30 season (30 homers, 30 stolen bases) in Royals history, same as he once concluded a minor-league year just one steal shy of the same milestone. And while he has poker face about most everything, just about anyone who knew him could tell he was pressing as the chances dwindled.
“He hasn’t said anything to a lot of people,” said his father, Bobby Witt Sr., “but I definitely think he was really wanting it to happen.”
Even as part of a conversation earlier Friday about a different topic, his manager, Matt Quatraro, couldn’t help but slip in a reference to the potential of a 30-30 season, saying, listen, I know you’re going after it.
And then in the sixth inning, as he stood between those bases at his shortstop position, Witt received an unlikely source of encouragement.
An opposing player.
Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge led off the sixth inning at Kauffman Stadium with a double. And for a brief moment, the guy who makes hitting home runs look as easy as free throws called for Witt’s attention.
“Hey, man,” Judge said, as Witt would later recall, “I want to see you get 30.”
And then Witt obliged.
One inning later.
Witt crushed a 423-foot home run over the left field fence in his next at-bat, a seventh-inning blast you knew was gone off the bat. And now the statistics show what has been obvious for the better part of the season: The Royals have never had a player quite like him.
The organization celebrated its 50th anniversary four years ago, more than a half-century absent a 30-30 talent. Witt is the seventh player in major-league history to get there at his age, just three months north of 23. He’s only one steal away from a 30-50 actually, and he would be just the fifth in league history to reach that milestone.
Yet for all of its rarity, the last emotion you could stumble upon late Friday was surprise. Not from him. Not from his father or his mother, who watched from Norman, Oklahoma. (“I thought my wife was going to jump through the roof,” Witt Sr. quipped.) Not from his manager. Not from the front office.
“There wasn’t a doubt in my mind he could do something like this,” general manager J.J. Picollo said.
What was always less certain is what’s more recently come with it.
One of the quieter, though still most highly respected, players in the Royals clubhouse has started to alter the former. With intent.
Witt clicked in the second half of the season. Figured it out, just as most inside the organization assumed he would. His defense is an asset, long gone a question mark. At the plate, he ditched the fastball above his hands, and he’s hit better than .300 since June 1 with 20 home runs.
He’s arrived.
The wins have not.
Let’s face it: This season has tested him like never before, and not just in the way that all baseball players are tested at this level like never before. Witt spent his entire life winning a lot of baseball games before he arrived in Kansas City. Which even included the Royals’ minor leagues. And, well, “losing sucks,” he said.
So at some point this season, Picollo said, Witt started to enact some discussions with his teammates. What can we do to get better. What’s our responsibility? How do we hold one another accountable?
“They know that we gotta change something — something’s gotta be changed — and I feel like it has to come from us players,” Witt said. “I think everyone’s really buying into that. I feel like it’s coming from us and the players.”
To be clear, Witt said that within a handful of minutes after signing a bat, jersey, baseball, pair of cleats and some trading cards in exchange for the baseball that cleared the fence Friday. Yes, he talked about losing. By choice.
The summer didn’t progress the way the Royals envisioned, but perhaps paired with the acquisition of left-hander Cole Ragans in a trade, they could not have sought a better development than what has taken place this season with Witt. In production. And in clubhouse personality.
To reach the next step in a rebuild, the Royals were always going to need this guy to reach his next step. They need the player. They need the leader. And they need others to follow.
Because what’s abundantly clear now: He’s only part of the solution.
The Royals have a cornerstone piece, and better yet one who is intent on influencing a clubhouse in need of more pieces like him. Witt ranks 11th in Fangraphs’ version of WAR. There is no cookie-cutter way to build championship baseball teams — the 2015 Royals did not have a player rank in the top-40 in WAR — but a superstar is pretty good place to start.
To start.
“We have a pillar,” Picollo said. “We have somebody that’s going to stand up and be a really special player in this game. We just got to develop other players around him and put other players around him.
“The part that’s going to give him the greatest amount of satisfaction is winning a World Series. That’s our job as a front office now. We’re aware of that.”
In a season they have dubbed one meant for evaluation — aren’t they all? — the Royals officially secured something they’ve never before enjoyed. In the same weekend, they’ll fight to avoid the worst season in franchise history.
Witt has done his part.
His next milestone deserves a bigger stage. A better stage.
This story was originally published September 30, 2023 at 11:19 AM.