SURPRISE, Ariz. — Kansas City Royals young phenom Bobby Witt Jr. graciously accepted the crown bestowed upon him by MLBPipeline.com as the game’s No. 1 overall prospect. He described it as an “honor.”
At the same time, Witt clearly sees that title as bittersweet. After all, he’d gone into last spring training hoping to do enough to move past “prospect” status.
This year with things lined up for him to grab the starting third-base job and run with it, Witt aims to “graduate” from the ranks of baseball’s prospects to a bona fide major-leaguer.
“It’s motivation for me,” Witt said. “It’s one step closer to graduating from that list, and that’s my ultimate goal. One guy I worked out with told me that prospects have done nothing until you get there and graduate from that list. …
“Yeah, this was part of it. This is awesome. I’ll cherish it for however long. Now, it’s time to hopefully get up there with the big boys.”
Witt, 21, went 2 for 2 in his first Cactus League game of spring training on Friday against the Texas Rangers. He started at third base in a lineup that featured the rest of the club’s projected regulars such as All-Stars Salvador Perez and Whit Merrifield as well as dynamic yet-oft-injured shortstop Adalberto Mondesi.
In the second inning, Witt exploded down the first-base line to beat out a dribbler towards the first-base side of the infield, contorting himself slightly to avoid a tag.
In the fourth inning, he hit a ball towards left-center that was cut off before it got into the gap yet he still legged out a double.
Witt’s success has been the farthest thing from a shock. It has almost seemed predestined.
From the fact that he’s the son of a 16-year major-leaguer in Bob Sr., who was a former first-round draft pick, to Witt having been named the national high school player of the year as a senior and selected No. 2 overall in the 2019 MLB draft, all signs pointed to the majors.
Last year after having left a lasting impression on his big-league brethren on the Royals in spring training before being sent down to the minors, Witt garnered Baseball America’s Minor League Player of the Year.
Witt slashed .290/.361/.575 with 33 home runs, 35 doubles, 29 stolen bases and 97 RBIs in 123 games (61 at Double-A, 62 at Triple-A).
The way Witt carries himself has really impressed Royals manager Mike Matheny, who spent 13 years in the majors as a player and enters his 10th as a manager.
“He’s got a great balance of confidence and humility with talent,” Matheny said. “I’ll tell you, that X-factor for him might be his passion for the game. This kid loves walking in here and throwing on that jersey.”
The Royals have directed Witt, who was drafted as a shortstop, to focus on third base. In a perfect world, they’d envision an infield with Witt playing side by side with Mondesi and giving the club a pair of potential five-tool impact players on the same side of the infield.
Now, it’s up to Witt this spring training to solidify his place as the club’s third baseman.
“I think last year I really learned from failure and from other things that I’ve just got to be myself and not try to do too much, not try to go out there and be someone who I’m not,” Witt said.
“Just go out there and be Bobby Witt Jr. I’ve said that a lot in interviews, but that’s truly what I need to do. Just simplify things as much as possible. Go out there and have fun. Play the game. Make it as joyful as possible.”
The “failure” Witt referenced was when he didn’t accomplish his dream of making the major-league team out of spring training last year.
Then as a result, he pressed at the plate early in the minor league season in an attempt to show he could play even better than he had in big league camp. Instead, he ended up racking up uncharacteristically-high strikeout totals as his production dipped.
Aside from not trying to prove he’s a big-leaguer on every swing, another focus of Witt’s will be to not let his aspirations get in the way of him soaking up the seminal moments along the way.
That’s a lesson that was passed down from his father, who Witt said wishes he’d had the presence of mind to appreciate everything along his journey.
“Now, he’s just telling me, ‘Take everything in. Take everything one thing at a time. Bring it in. Really feel it,’ ” Witt said.
