Bobby Witt Jr. continues to be one of the top three players in all of baseball, despite the Royals finding just about every way to not capitalize on his talent. In 2026, “Bobby Baseball” has been everything the Royals have needed and he has a solid chance to take home an MVP award with Aaron Judge’s injury earlier this season. Let’s dive into the numbers of yet another stellar season for Bobby Baseball, starting with the basic stats.
Through 74 games this season (before the Nationals series finale), BWJ is slashing .290/.364/.454 for an OPS of .818. While that is his lowest OPS total since 2023, one thing that sticks out is his .364 OBP which is a career high if he can keep it up. His wRC+ of 124 is right around his average marks for his career as well. He also leads the Royals in average, OBP, OPS, fWAR, wRC+, and plenty of other stats. Let’s dive a little deeper into the big change in his play style this season.
The Walks are Here, but the Power Isn’t
As noted in the basic numbers, BWJ has a career high OBP and that is due to his career high walk rate being 10.3%. Now, people might say pitchers are avoiding him and are pitching around him, and they would be partially right. BWJ is being pitched around, but he is also showing a lot more discipline in his approach.
As per his plate discipline chart, pitchers are avoiding him a bit with BWJ seeing 44.3% of pitches in the strike zone, which is a career low. Another key number showing his discipline is his overall swing-rate being 47.7%, a career low. Less swings is good at times, but it gets a little odd when we divide his swings against in the zone pitches versus out of zone pitches.
On O-swing%, BWJ has swung at 33.0% of pitches out of the zone, which is around his career average. For his Z-swing%, he sits at 66.1%, well below his career average. Going a tad deeper, he isn’t swinging at pitches in the “heart” of the plate with a 68.2% H-swing rate, again a career-low. While those are concerning, the big issue with his swing decisions lies in the shadow of the plate.
BWJ’s swing/take profile shows a key issue at the plate for him. In the shadow of the plate, he has a run value of -10. That is already teetering on a career low as -12 in his rookie year is his lowest run total in the shadow. The issue stems from being -12 on swing runs in the shadow, i.e. the results when he swings at shadow pitches heavily outweighs when he takes pitches. In short, BWJ’s approach has changed and in turn he is drawing more walks, but he is struggling more when pitchers hit the edges.
That leads us into the other issue, his power has been partially sapped. HIs ISO currently stands at a career low .164. It is also an issue that is difficult to figure out, because his batted ball profile still ranks highly on Baseball Savant. One factor to the lack of power is that pitchers aren’t giving him much to work with, but another one is a slight decline in his bat speed.
In 2023, BWJ averaged a bat swing of 75.1 mph, good for the 87th percentile that season. In 2026, that swing speed is 73.6 mph, good for the 70th percentile. While that is concerning, it is more than likely due to the change in his approach. He still is hovering around his career average in square-up% and blast%, so that isn’t an issue.
The biggest issue in his swing this season, however, is his ideal attack angle%. As defined by the MLB, “attack angle measures the vertical direction that the sweet spot of the bat is traveling at the moment it hits the baseball.” BWJ has an average attack angle of 6 degrees, which is normal for him. The issue is that, despite his attack angle being in the ideal 5-20 degree range, he is only in that ideal range 42.4% of the time.
This seems like slight nitpicks in his profile, and it kind of is, but the overall lack of power production from BWJ is slightly concerning. With how the profile looks, however, there is going to be a stretch where BWJ is hitting for a ton of power. Now we will shift into the bread and butter of this season for him.
Best Defender in Baseball and One of the Best Thieves in Baseball
BWJ is on pace for his best defensive season so far in his career and is on pace for one of the best defensive seasons for a shortstop. In 2025, he put together his best defensive season with 24 Outs Above Average (OAA), 20 Fielding Run Value (FRV), and 3 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS). This year he is already at 16 OAA, 12 FRV, and 7 DRS. While it might not be Andrelton Simmons level, it is a close second.
To put that in perspective, the best shortstop season defensively for the Royals in recent memory is Nicky Lopez’s 2021. Lopez had 25 OAA, 21 FRV, and 3 DRS at shortstop, for what is probably one of the more overlooked defensive seasons ever (should have won a gold glove). BWJ is on pace to shatter those numbers and we are just about to hit the halfway point in the season. He also has the highest Defense value in the league, as per Fangraphs. Thank you José Alguacil.
On to the basepaths, BWJ is on pace to shatter his career high in stolen bases as he sits at 27 so far. 2023 saw him swipe 49 and this season he is on pace for around 50-plus swiped bags. He accounts for just under half of the Royals total tally of swiped bags. He also has been very efficient in swiping bases as he is 27-for-31 so far, which is on pace for his highest efficiency season.
Conclusion
Despite some “flaws” in his game, BWJ is looking to continue his warpath of being one of the best players in baseball. He leads the lead in fWAR and looks to be on pace for another 8-plus WAR season. Once the power comes back into his bat, we could be looking at an all-time shortstop season similar to 2024. The biggest issue for him, however, is that he is getting the Mike Trout treatment, carrying a team that is well below .500.
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