he was not asked to be part of the team<\/a>. The Baltimore Orioles\u2019 Gunnar Henderson will be the other shortstop.<\/p>\nWitt\u2019s 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\u2019s loanDepot Park when Turner hit a go-ahead grand slam.<\/p>\n
The moment was electric, one of the highlights of the tournament. Witt relished being around his teammates, studying their every step, asking himself, \u201cWhat\u2019s (Mike) Trout doing? What\u2019s (Kyle) Schwarber doing? What makes them so good?\u201d He also relished his first taste of what the other players kept saying was \u201cplayoff baseball,\u201d something he would not experience with the Royals until the following season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember before everything started, we watched the video of Kobe (Bryant), when he ran through Pau Gasol,\u201d 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. \u201cIt was like, there might be teammates you\u2019re playing against, but when you\u2019re doing this, you\u2019re doing it for what\u2019s on your chest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember us talking at the cage, saying we\u2019ve 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\u2019s on your chest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Witt said his locker was near Goldschmidt\u2019s and Arenado\u2019s. They served as mentors and spoke with him frequently. Turner also treated him well, along with Wainwright, Trout, Mookie Betts, everyone really.<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 \u201cobviously, just because he\u2019s the captain.\u201d And he mentions Bregman, Schwarber, Will Smith, Clayton Kershaw \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cThe list goes on and on,\u201d Witt said. \u201cI could name every player on the roster and say, \u2018I\u2019d love to play with this guy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Witt isn\u2019t overstating it. This will be Team USA\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
The group includes last year\u2019s AL MVP (Judge) and runner-up (Cal Raleigh), the NL MVP runner-up (Schwarber) and both Cy Young winners (Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal).<\/p>\n
Yet, no one will be surprised if Witt is at the center of it all.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the best player I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d said second baseman Jonathan India, a five-year veteran who joined the Royals last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in the game long enough now to have seen most of the players in the league. This guy, he does everything perfect. He\u2019s so smart. You get those five-tool guys. But the sixth tool is the mental side. This guy has it. It\u2019s an honor to play next to him. And for a young kid, he acts like he\u2019s been in the game 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Last season amounted to regression, at least by the standards Witt established in \u201824. He went from 10.5 fWAR to 8.0, which was still the third-highest in the majors \u2014 and good enough for another top-five MVP finish.<\/p>\n
Yes, Witt dropped from 32 homers in 2024 to 23 in \u201825. 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do get frustrated,\u201d Royals senior director of hitting performance Alec Zumwalt said of the reaction by some to Witt\u2019s season. \u201cI\u2019ve read what has been said, it was a disappointment, things like that. No. He set the bar the year before. But he\u2019s going to set a new bar. It\u2019s going to continue to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Witt described last season as a \u201clearning curve\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
He wants to become more vocal as a leader. He wants to continue improving in every area, saying, \u201cI\u2019m not going to ever try to reach my peak.\u201d But Zumwalt said Witt also absorbed a lesson that is sometimes difficult for young stars to accept.<\/p>\n
He can only expect so much of himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeorge Brett always says, \u2018Try less.\u2019 When you try harder, it doesn\u2019t always work out,\u201d Zumwalt said, referencing the Royals\u2019 Hall of Famer. \u201cThat\u2019s what he learned more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Arenado recalls offering Witt tips, and Witt incorporating them immediately. The kid\u2019s combination of talent and aptitude made a powerful impression on the eight-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner. There wasn\u2019t much Arenado could teach Witt. Everything seemed to come to him easily.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a worker. He wasn\u2019t afraid to ask questions. He had a great attitude,\u201d Arenado said. \u201cYou just knew he was different from most players that age. You just saw he was going to be an elite player in this game.\u201d<\/p>\n
He returns to Team USA a reserve turned regular, a prospect turned star.<\/p>\n
Bobby Wait no more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nytimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He looked like everyone\u2019s 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. \u201cThis guy,\u201d Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt would tell each other, \u201cis going to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2287033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[43627,25866],"class_list":["post-2287032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-mlb"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/A-spectator-for-Team-USA-at-the-2023-World-Baseball.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2287032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2287032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2287032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2287034,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2287032\/revisions\/2287034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2287033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2287032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2287032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2287032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}