He looked like everyone’s little brother, always smiling, just happy to be there. Bobby Witt Jr. barely played in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. But his Team USA manager, Mark DeRosa, could see what was coming. His older teammates could, too.
“This guy,” Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt would tell each other, “is going to be different.”
Witt played the same role Alex Bregman fulfilled for Team USA in 2017, the same one Roman Anthony will inherit with the U.S. squad when this year’s tournament begins next month.
Eager young pupil. Apprentice in training. Star on the rise.
Bobby Wait.
“I knew what I was getting into from the beginning,” Witt said. “I knew I probably wasn’t going to play a lot.
Coming off a good but unspectacular rookie season with the Kansas City Royals, Witt appeared in only five games for Team USA — three as a pinch runner, one as a pinch hitter, one as a defensive replacement. But during workouts, his tools were unmistakable. He was a baseball prodigy, putting his natural gifts on display, impressing the older hands.
Witt could hit. He could run. He could defend both at shortstop and third base, a position where he started 50 times as a rookie. Adalberto Mondesi and Nicky Lopez, destined to be future trivia questions, were the other Royals shortstops that season. For four starts during a brief call-up, there was another rookie, Maikel Garcia.
Goldschmidt wasn’t sure about Witt’s power, thinking it might be depressed at Kauffman Stadium. Little did Goldschmidt know, Witt was about to produce back-to-back 30-homer seasons. Yet, for all Witt’s physical attributes, what impressed the Team USA players most about him was his demeanor.
Witt would ask questions, hang around the batting cage to talk hitting, quiz Arenado about his footwork at third. His professionalism was stunning for a player who had not yet turned 23, less stunning when considering that his father, Bobby Witt Sr., pitched in the majors for 16 years.
“The thing that stuck out with me is that he was really mature, had a really good head on his shoulders,” Goldschmidt said. “Confident but not cocky. Everything you would want.”
DeRosa said he would leave the field every day thinking, “Oh my God, this kid is so talented, how do we find a way to get him on the field?” But shortstop Trea Turner hit five home runs in six games, earning a unanimous all-tournament selection. DeRosa didn’t want to play Witt out of position at second, and he had Arenado at third.
Witt was not about to complain, not when he was soaking up knowledge daily from some of the best players in the sport. It was an honor, he said, simply to be a member of Team USA. Seeing his humility, his teammates liked him even more.
“We knew he was a star, but I think what we all loved so much about him was that he didn’t act like it,” retired pitcher Adam Wainwright said. “I got asked a whole lot by lots of different people who my favorite teammates from 2023 were. Without question, he was one of the ones I mentioned every time.
“I left the WBC the biggest Bobby Witt fan.”
Looking back at the 2023 tournament, Witt said, “I was just there to kind of get experience for the next one.” And now the next one is upon us. Witt, still only 25, returns to the WBC as a superstar, the American League MVP runner-up in 2024 and fourth-place finisher in ‘25.
When DeRosa approached him last spring about playing shortstop for Team USA, he said Witt asked him, “I’m starting, right?” DeRosa answered in the affirmative. Turner said Monday he was not asked to be part of the team. The Baltimore Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson will be the other shortstop.
Witt’s biggest thrill in 2023 probably was when he pinch ran for Pete Alonso in the eighth inning of the quarterfinal against Venezuela, with Team USA trailing 7-5. He was on second base at Miami’s loanDepot Park when Turner hit a go-ahead grand slam.
The moment was electric, one of the highlights of the tournament. Witt relished being around his teammates, studying their every step, asking himself, “What’s (Mike) Trout doing? What’s (Kyle) Schwarber doing? What makes them so good?” He also relished his first taste of what the other players kept saying was “playoff baseball,” something he would not experience with the Royals until the following season.
“I remember before everything started, we watched the video of Kobe (Bryant), when he ran through Pau Gasol,” Witt said, referring to the famous incident at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when Bryant announced to his U.S. teammates that he would knock over his Los Angeles Lakers teammate on the first play of the game to set the tone against Spain. “It was like, there might be teammates you’re playing against, but when you’re doing this, you’re doing it for what’s on your chest.
“I remember us talking at the cage, saying we’ve got to bring the energy. You see those guys (from other countries), they hit a homer, they come out of the dugout. (So), celebrate with your teammates. Represent what’s on your chest.”
Witt said his locker was near Goldschmidt’s and Arenado’s. They served as mentors and spoke with him frequently. Turner also treated him well, along with Wainwright, Trout, Mookie Betts, everyone really.
In his second stint with Team USA, he looks forward to reuniting with Henderson, whom he met on the amateur showcase circuit when both were in high school (Witt was the second pick in 2019; Henderson 42nd). He also is eager to play with Aaron Judge — “obviously, just because he’s the captain.” And he mentions Bregman, Schwarber, Will Smith, Clayton Kershaw …
“The list goes on and on,” Witt said. “I could name every player on the roster and say, ‘I’d love to play with this guy.’”
Witt isn’t overstating it. This will be Team USA’s most star-studded roster yet, better than any of those in the previous five tournaments, including the 2017 group that gave the U.S. its only WBC title.
The group includes last year’s AL MVP (Judge) and runner-up (Cal Raleigh), the NL MVP runner-up (Schwarber) and both Cy Young winners (Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal).
Yet, no one will be surprised if Witt is at the center of it all.
“He’s the best player I’ve ever seen,” said second baseman Jonathan India, a five-year veteran who joined the Royals last season.
“I’ve been in the game long enough now to have seen most of the players in the league. This guy, he does everything perfect. He’s so smart. You get those five-tool guys. But the sixth tool is the mental side. This guy has it. It’s an honor to play next to him. And for a young kid, he acts like he’s been in the game 10 years.”
Witt is not exactly unknown to fans nationally. He signed an 11-year, $289 million extension in February 2024. That year, he led the Royals to their first postseason appearance since 2015. Only a monster season from Judge prevented him from winning AL MVP.
Last season amounted to regression, at least by the standards Witt established in ‘24. He went from 10.5 fWAR to 8.0, which was still the third-highest in the majors — and good enough for another top-five MVP finish.
Yes, Witt dropped from 32 homers in 2024 to 23 in ‘25. His OPS+ fell from 74 percent above league average to 36 percent above. But his average exit velocity ranked in the 95th percentile. His range and sprint speed were both in the 100th.
“I do get frustrated,” Royals senior director of hitting performance Alec Zumwalt said of the reaction by some to Witt’s season. “I’ve read what has been said, it was a disappointment, things like that. No. He set the bar the year before. But he’s going to set a new bar. It’s going to continue to happen.”
The Royals hired two new hitting coaches under Zumwalt, Connor Dawson and Marcus Thames. They moved the fences in at Kauffman Stadium. Any growth from Witt, though, figures to occur the same way it does with most superstars. From within.
Witt described last season as a “learning curve” for himself and the team. By finishing 82-80, the Royals won only four fewer games than they did during their 2024 playoff run. But Witt said they plateaued a bit, and he also was less than satisfied with his performance.
He wants to become more vocal as a leader. He wants to continue improving in every area, saying, “I’m not going to ever try to reach my peak.” But Zumwalt said Witt also absorbed a lesson that is sometimes difficult for young stars to accept.
He can only expect so much of himself.
“George Brett always says, ‘Try less.’ When you try harder, it doesn’t always work out,” Zumwalt said, referencing the Royals’ Hall of Famer. “That’s what he learned more than anything.”
Witt is in an interesting place for a player, fully established yet not fully evolved. Three years ago, the other members of Team USA all but gasped at his promise. None is surprised by his ascent. None would be surprised if he pushed his ceiling even higher.
Arenado recalls offering Witt tips, and Witt incorporating them immediately. The kid’s combination of talent and aptitude made a powerful impression on the eight-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner. There wasn’t much Arenado could teach Witt. Everything seemed to come to him easily.
“He was a worker. He wasn’t afraid to ask questions. He had a great attitude,” Arenado said. “You just knew he was different from most players that age. You just saw he was going to be an elite player in this game.”
He returns to Team USA a reserve turned regular, a prospect turned star.
Bobby Wait no more.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nytimes.com ’
