Bobby Witt Jr. of the Royals became the first shortstop in big league history to have successive seasons with at least 30 home runs and 30 steals when he stole second base in the first inning of Tuesday night’s game against the Detroit Tigers. Kansas City lost that game 3-1 after 10 innings.
Witt has 31 home runs this season, including a grand slam in Monday night’s series opener, and 30 steals. Last season, the 24-year-old sensation had 49 steals and hit the home run he needed to reach 30 with three games remaining.
The son of long-time major league pitcher Bobby Witt also became the only player to have multiple 30-30 seasons in his first three years in the majors. In fact, just six other players have had one within their first three seasons.
Witt, the second overall pick in the 2019 first-year player draft, signed an 11-year contract with the Royals this summer worth a total of $288,777,777. The largest contract in franchise history featured a $7,777,777 signing bonus, a nod to his No. 7 jersey, which has proven so popular among Kansas City supporters who have packed Kauffman Stadium throughout their postseason run.
The Royals are firmly in the AL wild-card race, with an outside possibility of catching Cleveland in the division.
Witt has been a major contributor to their recovery from a 106-loss season last year. He entered Tuesday leading the majors with 200 hits, a.332 batting average, and 112 runs scored. The only players to end a season leading in all three categories were Nap Lajoie in 1901, Ty Cobb in 1911 and 2015, Stan Musial in 1952, and Rod Carew in 1977.
More than anything else, Witt has injected a contagious energy to a club that desperately needs it.
The Royals won back-to-back AL pennants in 2014 and 2015, as well as their first World Series championship in 30 years, but they were unable to maintain their success and swiftly fell back into mediocrity. Kansas City has lost at least 100 games three times in six seasons before improving under second-year manager Matt Quatraro this season.
While fans in Kansas City have witnessed Witt’s star rise, his big break may have came this summer during the Home Run Derby at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, not far from where he grew up in Colleyville. Witt advanced to the finals, but lost 14-13 to Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernández in a tense game decided by the final swings.
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