Bobby Witt Jr. is in control: How Team USA’s leadoff man and Royals star has grown into one of baseball’s best

SURPRISE, Ariz. — Rarely does Royals infielder Michael Massey doubt Bobby Witt Jr.’s capacity to make a play. The two are best associates, having come up collectively by the minors. Massey has seen the heroics lengthy sufficient to count on them. There’s often no cause to query it.

A couple of seasons in the past, although, was the one time he did. It was 2023. A midseason recreation. Witt chased a fly ball that Anthony Rizzo despatched slicing towards the left-field line. Witt, calm as ever, by no means hesitated, following it in a manner that appears unique to him, his athleticism at all times below management.

The ball stored drifting. Witt stored operating. Then he slid and made the seize. It seemed simple. It wasn’t.

“I mean, he almost caught it and ran into the left-field foul pole,” Massey stated. “It was one of the most incredible things I’ve seen. And he made it look so natural as he was covering the ground. You’re just like, ‘Yeah, that’s not supposed to happen.'”

Much of what Witt does is not purported to occur on a baseball subject. A quintessential five-tool expertise, he carries the traits of an inner-circle Hall of Famer, at the same time as his profession is nonetheless being written — the kind of participant whose athleticism by no means outruns his management.

Dayton Moore, the longtime Royals normal supervisor who drafted Witt in 2019, as soon as stated the Gold Glove shortstop may simply as simply have been a Gold Glove middle fielder.

“He’s one of those guys that could play anywhere on the field and do it well,” Moore stated. “He’s the best player I’ve ever scouted.”

That’s saying one thing contemplating Moore scouted the likes of Andruw and Chipper Jones throughout his time with the Braves early in his profession.

Witt, who is at the moment starring as Team USA’s shortstop and leadoff man in the World Baseball Classicis an athletic freak. There’s a case to be made he is essentially the most athletic participant in baseball. Ronald Acuña Jr. is perhaps the one participant who can go toe-to-toe with him.

Yet what separates Witt is not athleticism alone. It’s the poise that comes with it.

He can observe a ball down the left-field line like he did towards the Yankees. He can vary up the center at full pace, spin and hearth a runner out at first with out shedding himself in the second. He could make his patented diving play, physique parallel to the grime beneath him, the motion at all times measured. He can go first to 3rd — or first to house — along with his 30.3 mph dash pace (tied for second in the majors final 12 months) and by no means appear like he is attempting to run quick. He can barrel balls in the zone and exterior of it simply the identical.

He makes the routine play routinely. And the extraordinary play look routine.

“I’ve never seen him out of control on the baseball field for as athletic as he is,” Moore stated.

You see, athleticism solely will get you however to this point. It can rev the engine, however it does not maintain the automotive on the highway. Control does.

Athleticism can open the door however it does not get you thru. Control does.

Witt makes it by with ease.

“I think the most impressive part is he’s able to do things, but he’s able to do them quickly,” stated Royals teammate Vinnie Pasquantino. “It’s almost like them, you know, when you’re watching TV and someone comes on frame and you don’t see him, then they make the play. That’s what I feel like watching.”

The snapshots of his success on the baseball subject do not inform the entire story. Sure, the athleticism is there. But so are the numerous hours spent on the fields of Colleyville, Texas, his hometown, lengthy earlier than he reached the massive leagues — the place this management was fine-tuned.

The extra I ready, the slower the sport grew to become. The extra he stretched his competitiveness past baseball, the sharper his skillset grew to become inside it.

“God gifted me with this talent and ability to be athletic,” Witt stated. “But I was also working at it at a young age. I was always outside, playing other sports and always doing things for my body. Then in the offseason, I put my body in difficult positions that made it easier when the season came.”

Witt was at all times the quickest participant on his groups. As a freshman, he performed slot receiver on his junior varsity soccer staff — there is not any escaping soccer in Texas — and his dad, Bobby Witt Sr., seen early how simply his son may draw back from opponents.

Witt Sr.’s experience, nonetheless, is in baseball. He’s a former large leaguer. He understood what it took to make the massive leagues. And little question, his son had the expertise. But he was at all times cautious of inserting the big-league expectations on his teenager. He knew how exhausting it was to make it.

But as Witt grew, the managed athleticism got here with him by manner of the numerous reps.

“There were times we’d be out in the yard hitting ground balls,” Witt Sr. stated. “We’d be out there 45 minutes, and I’d be exhausted. I’d say, ‘That’s good for me.’ He’d say, ‘Nah, let’s keep going. Let’s do some more. And then I said, ‘You know what, man, this kid might have a chance.'”

Chance assembly preparation has helped flip Witt into one of the premier gamers in the majors.

His total bundle exists in a tier few gamers can contact. The marriage of promise and manufacturing. The crystallization of what scouts projected. Rarely does it unfold that manner.

“He, to me, is the most elite player in the game. He just is,” Moore stated.

And on Monday night, Witt could have the possibility to assist safe the United States’ WBC quarterfinal spot. Witt’s Royals made the playoffs in 2024, however he is getting one other probability this March to play in entrance of a nationwide viewers.

Just a couple of years in the past, it was Witt who was spending most of his time on the Team USA bench as a backup on the 2023 WBC squad. He had simply three plate appearances in that event, however he shared a clubhouse with extra established US stars. Now, he is one of them.

Witt is in management.