MLB Network dubs Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. as one of league’s top building blocks

It’s certainly not news at this point when someone recognizes Bobby Witt Jr. as a one of the league’s brightest talents.

The Kansas City Royals have known for awhile now that they have a superstar on their hands, whether it was during his first 30-30 season in 2023, his MVP runner-up season in 2024 or his best defensive season of his career paired with another year of showcasing his top-tier bat in 2025.

But what is more newsworthy is how Bobby Witt Jr. is perceived amongst his fellow peers who are alongside him at the top of the league talent-wise.

Last week in an MLB Network segment on MLB Now, both Joel Sherman and Alex Avila not only had Bobby Witt Jr. amongst their list of the league’s most talented players, but deemed him an essential building block-type player.

MLB Network analysts deem Bobby Witt Jr. league’s top building block

In this specfic segment, Sherman and Avila were tasked with giving their personal top five lists of players in game for the next five years.

While both the celebrity.land columnist (Sherman) and the former Detroit Tigers backstop (Avila) unsurprisingly had the generational dual threat in Shohei Ohtani at the top of their repsective lists, Witt was a staple in the next four spots for both of them.

He was deemed so important that Sherman dubbed Witt – who he had just below Ohtani on his list at No. 2 – as the top name to build a team around if he were given the task of constructing a roster.

“If I were starting a team from scratch, I’d start with Bobby Witt Jr. because of the age, the upside, the greatness,” Sherman said.

“I think there’s future MVPs in him,” he said.

And Avila, who had Witt fourth on his list of talents, echoed Sherman’s sentiments, saying if he were to start a team, Witt’s profile would be who he’d select as well.

Since bursting onto the scene in 2023 during his sophomore year in MLB, there have been few players quite like Bobby Witt Jr.

The 25-year-old is arguably not yet in the prime years of his career and has still accumulated the second highest fWAR in the past three seasons at 24.1 – trailing only the great Aaron Judge.

In that span, he also sits tied for 14th in wRC+ at 138, 11th in OPS at .882, sixth in AVG at .300, seventh in runs scored at 318, tied for 15th in HR at 85, 12th in RBI at 287 and fourth in stolen bases at 117.

Then, there’s that all important defensive side of his game, where he sits atop the major league leaderboard in OAA at 53 – six above the Platinum Glove Award winning second baseman in Andrés Giménez.

The Royals faithful have known for some time now that they have a uniquely special talent on their hands in Bobby Witt Jr., and the more he dominates in The Show, the more the rest of the baseball world seems to recognize his greatness as well.