{"id":2418967,"date":"2026-05-16T01:10:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T01:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2418967"},"modified":"2026-05-16T01:10:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T01:10:18","slug":"the-numbers-behind-bobby-witt-jr-s-start-to-the-season-are-remarkable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/the-numbers-behind-bobby-witt-jr-s-start-to-the-season-are-remarkable\/","title":{"rendered":"The Numbers Behind Bobby Witt Jr.\u2019s Start to the Season Are Remarkable"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Kansas City Royals have gotten off to a rough start in the 2026 season. They currently hold a 19-25 record and are tied for fourth place in the American League Central.<\/p>\n

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The slow start has been the result of a combination of inconsistent offense, a struggling bullpen and injuries throughout the rotation. But despite the team\u2019s overall struggles, one player on the Royals roster is still performing at an elite level.<\/p>\n

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Superstar shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. has been playing at an elite level both at the plate and in the field. The 25-year-old leads Kansas City in several offensive categories and has been one of the most productive players in all of MLB to begin the season.<\/p>\n

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Bobby Witt Jr.\u00a0is playing at an MVP-caliber level this season<\/h2>\n

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May 5, 2026; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (7) throws to first base for the out in the seventh inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter Aiken-Imagn Images | Peter Aiken-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

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Witt is a true five-tool player, and his combination of contact, power and speed makes him dangerous at the plate. Through 173 at-bats this season, he has posted a .306\/.381\/.503 slash line.<\/p>\n

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He leads the Royals in batting average (.306), home runs (seven), RBIs (22), on-base percentage (.381) and hits (53).<\/p>\n

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His underlying metrics are just as impressive. He owns a batting run value of nine, which ranks in the 90th percentile, according to Statcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The All-Star has been hitting the ball extremely hard throughout the season. He owns a 93.2 mph average exit velocity along with a 52.1% hard-hit rate. Another metric that stands out is his expected batting average, which currently sits at .311 and ranks in the 98th percentile.<\/p>\n

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Ever since Witt entered the league, his speed has consistently been on display. His 30.4 sprint speed ranks in the 100th percentile. That speed was highlighted during his recent inside-the-park home run<\/a>, when he rounded the bases in a blazing 14.13 seconds.<\/p>\n

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He currently leads the league<\/a> with 11 outs above average and owns a fielding run value of eight, which also ranks in the 100th percentile.<\/p>\n

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And if you watched the defensive display he put on during this year\u2019s\u00a0World Baseball Classic, those numbers should come as no surprise.<\/p>\n

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To top off his already dominant season, he not only leads the league in WAR, but he also became the first player this season to reach a WAR of 3.0, according to FanGraphs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Witt has been the brightest spot for Kansas City so far as the Royals look to get back in the win column and climb the Central standings.<\/p>\n

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\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.si.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kansas City Royals have gotten off to a rough start in the 2026 season. They currently hold a 19-25 record and are tied for fourth place in the American League Central. The slow start has been the result of a combination of inconsistent offense, a struggling bullpen and injuries throughout the rotation. But despite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2418968,"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":[],"class_list":["post-2418967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/The-Numbers-Behind-Bobby-Witt-Jrs-Start-to-the-Season.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2418967","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=2418967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2418967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2418969,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2418967\/revisions\/2418969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2418968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2418967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2418967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2418967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}