The Kansas City Royals’ roster may have its holes, but the left side of the infield is not one of them.
Shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. was a known commodity coming into the year, having finished second in Most Valuable Player voting a year ago. But it was third baseman Maikel Garcia who truly shattered expectations in 2025, putting together a 5.8-WAR season and drastically raising his overall value.
On Sunday night, both Witt and Garcia found themselves adding to their trophy cases after fantastic years, and collectively, they proved that the infield in Kansas City is perhaps more locked in than anywhere else in the league.
Gold Glove Award winners for both the American and National Leagues were announced on Sunday night, and as Witt took home the shortstop nod for the second season in a row, Garcia won his first major award after a fantastic two-way campaign.
Garcia and Witt weren’t just deserving winners; they were slam-dunk choices. Both 25-year-olds ranked head and shoulders above their AL competitors in outs above average, which is probably the best stat we have to quantify defensive contributions nowadays.
Witt totaled 24 OAA, tied with Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong for the most at any position in baseball. The closest AL shortstop was Houston Astros All-Star Jeremy Peña, who could only muster eight.
Meanwhile, Garcia finished second among all third basemen with 18 OAA, behind only the Cincinnati Reds’ Ke’Bryan Hayes with 21. The next-closes AL third baseman was Toronto Blue Jays playoff hero Ernie Clement with seven.
Not only are Garcia and Witt locked in for the foreseeable future, but the Royals still have three more years of first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, who popped a career-high 32 home runs to lead the club this season.
They could still use a more permanent answer at second base, but with Jonathan India and Michael Massey both under contract, the Royals do have a very solid infield group locked in for next season if they make no other moves.
More MLB: Blue Jays $33 Million Superstar Named Royals’ Potential Free-Agent Target
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.si.com ’
