Witt has had a pedestrian start at the plate, posting a batting average and on-base percentage in line with past seasons but with an isolated power number that’s down — or at least it will be until he goes on a power tear. So, why is Witt a strong early frontrunner in this category? He’s just really, really good — at everything. According to FanGraphs’ DEF metric, Witt has been the most valuable defender in the major leagues. He is seventh in BSR, FanGraphs’ bottom-line baserunning metric. He’s a shortstop, with the positional value that goes with that designation.
Add it all up and of the 31.9 runs above replacement that Witt has put up — resulting in a 3.3 fWAR figure that is a more than a half-win better than any other AL player — only 8.2 of those runs come from batting. And his offensive numbers will almost certainly go up from here. This might be the year Witt lands his first AL MVP Award, though it would help matters if the struggling Royals mount some sort of playoff push over the months to come.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.royalsreview.com ’
