I went to my second Kansas City Royals game of the season on Wednesday night. I was in great company and just love being at a live baseball game, I was as depressed about the team leaving Kauffman Stadium after a 7-0 loss at the hands of the New York Yankees as I have been in a long time.
I came into the season believing that the back-to-back winning seasons were signs of real improvement, and I liked a lot of the decisions J.J. Piccolo made this offseason. While there is still time to turn the season around, the Royals are somehow only 5.5 games back of the third Wild Card spot, it feels pretty hopeless after another sweep at the hand of the Bronx Bombers. The Royals are 22-34 entering Friday’s game against the Texas Rangers, and it’s going to take a miracle run for the team to reach the preseason expectations that many of us had for them, including the expectations the team itself had.
There is plenty of blame to go around for the start of the 2026 season, and I have a feeling we will continue to spend a lot of time unpacking all the failures and implications of those failures for the rest of the summer. There are not too many positives to look at right now, but one of the bright spots on the team is star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. Witt is holding up his end of the bargain, looking like the best version of the all-around talent that we have seen the past few years.
His defense has been incredible this year. He is either first or second to Chicago Cubs centerfielder Pete-Crow Armstrong among all defenders in most advanced defensive metrics. He is on pace to win both the Gold Glove for AL shortstop for the third time, and the Platinum Glove for best AL defender for the second time. It truly amazes me how much growth Witt has shown as a defender since his rookie season, and is giving me hope that someday Cater Jensen will be able to improve his defense as well.
His offense is also going strong. He is hitting 30% above league-average, and is doing so as the only regular in the lineup hitting above league-average. In fact, Elias Diaz in 23 plate appearances is the only other Royals hitter who has posted an above-average mark so far this year. Witt is drawing more walks in 2026 while striking out slightly less, which is a great combination to have as a hitter. We are also due for a Witt goes nuclear month, which will raise his overall numbers as well. Witt might win another Silver Slugger this season, which would be his third one of those.
Witt enters Friday with 3.4 fWAR, which is the highest mark in the AL. He is 0.6 WAR ahead of the position player in second place, Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez. The Astros have had a disappointing start to the season and Alvarez normally misses some timer each season with various injuries, so I think there’s a real chance that Witt has significantly more WAR than any AL player by the end of the year. He will need to if he is going to win MVP in 2026; voters have come a long way, but I assume they would still rather vote for a player whose team is in the playoff picture than one who is fighting to stay out of last place in the AL Central.
I want Witt to collect as much personal hardware as he can and four awards in one season will strengthen his future Hall of Fame candidacy. Despite the team struggling around him, Witt has held up his end of the bargain and played like a superstar. It’s been refreshing to watch him play so well this year amidst all the disappointment and struggles coming from the rest of the Royals.
Witt right now has more fWAR than the rest of the Royals position players combined, 3.4 WAR compared to 1.6 WAR. Third baseman Maikel Garcia has had a fine start to the year with 1.3 WAR of his own, but so many Royals position players are currently producing at or below replacement level. Issac Collins, Vinnie Pasquantino, Salvador Perez and Nick Loftin are all currently below replacement level, while Starling Marte, Michael Massey, Lane Thomas and Elias Diaz each have .1 WAR. Having eight position players at or below replacement level is a disaster for Kansas City; Witt’s production is helping keep the wheels from completely falling off to start the year.
Not only do I want Witt to collect as many awards as he can, I want him to stay in Kansas City for as long as he can. He can opt out of his deal after the 2030 season, which including 2026 is five seasons away. That feels like a long ways out from now, but I know how quickly time flies in the life of a sports fan. Injuries can happen or Witt and the front office could get sideways and he demand a trade. We just don’t know what the future holds. I want Witt’s career to resemble George Brett’s, which featured frequent trips to the postseason with Brett as the best player on the team. Right now, Witt’s career is taking more of a Mike Trout path; amazing player on a terrible team who has barely played in the postseason.
I don’t want to ignore or take for granted the great season that Witt is having so far, and I don’t want the Royals too either. Each year Witt is on the Royals, the team should be trying to compete for a spot in the postseason. While this year is technically not lost yet, it is certainly on life support. If the team can save the season then great, but if not the front office needs to figure out how to not let another superstar effort from Witt go to waste.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.royalsreview.com ’
