As the playoffs approach, the record books are heating up! One player who’s definitely making waves is Bobby Witt Jr. Seeing his dominance, he’s not stopping anytime soon. Meanwhile, as his MVP frontrunner contender, Aaron Judge is out here crafting his own legacy with multiple 50-home run seasons. On Tuesday night, Witt showed everyone why he’s in this race too!
After drawing a walk in the first inning against Tigers starter Casey Mize, the Royals star shortstop made history by swiping his 30th base of the season, marking his second career 30-homer, 30-stolen base season! Sounds exciting, right? But wait, there’s more! He became the first shortstop in MLB history to achieve multiple 30-30 seasons! That’s a big record to be set by the 24-year-old. While he was thrilled to claim this milestone and start his own record, deep down, he wished for something more.
What does Bobby Witt Jr. feel is still missing?
As per MLB, Even though the 24-year-old Bobby Witt Jr. had a standout game on Monday—launching a grand slam for his 32nd home run and notching an infield single for his Majors-leading 200th hit of the year, marking the ninth 200-plus-hit season in franchise history. The shortstop believed it would’ve been even sweeter if the Royals had pulled off a win on Tuesday night. But instead, they faced a tough 3-1 extra-inning defeat to the Tigers at Kauffman Stadium, and with everything at stake, they lost a much-needed victory!
Kansas City is striving for its first postseason appearance since winning the 2015 World Series, and Bobby Witt Jr. is doing everything he can to get the Royals to October. And that is evident every time he is on the field! Even after the tough loss, the slugger remains confident, saying, “It’s very special, but it’s now over. Now we’re on to tomorrow.” While he’s brushing off his achievements to focus on the next game! We as fans can’t let a record like this go without talking enough about it, right? Do you know only six shortstops have ever recorded a 30-30 season in MLB history?
Among the list are aces like Alex Rodriguez and Jimmy Rollins! Bobby joined the list in 2023, becoming the first Royal to have a 30-30, and just a year later, he started his own club! Well, doing something in the history of the game for the first time ever, on a positive note, is remarkable, right? The team manager believes the same, showing full confidence in him, saying, “He would trade that 30-30 for a win tonight.” While we would love to see that happen! One thing to note is he’s not just chasing wins; he’s also in the hunt for the MVP!
Bobby Witt Jr. is powerful, but let’s not forget his contender, Aaron Judge—the beast of the Yankees! Uff, so it’s a tough battle out there.
A tough battle for the MVP!
While, undoubtedly Witt’s season is the best in Royals history, beating out the best of George Brett’s career and other franchise legends like Darrell Porter and John Mayberry. The 24-year-old has a league-leading .332 batting average, 200 hits, and 122 runs, and has been amongst the league’s best at the toughest infield position! But if we talk about the MVP race the verdict is quite different! The current odds still favor the Yankees captain Aaron Judge by a large margin.
Even though the Yankees slugger hasn’t been in full form in his last few appearances, he does have the advantage on Witt in most statistical categories up to this point, particularly in overall offensive production. See, the 32-year-old has had a higher on-base percentage, with .455 compared to Witt’s .384. And if we look at the slugging percentage, Witt has .600, while Judge leads with .692. Finally, in OPS, Witt has .984, while Judge has a standout OPS of 1.147. By the way, both are a great deal and both of them are left with more games to play!
With about a dozen games remaining for both the Royals and Yankees, anything could happen! But if we look at the current stats, even if Witt and Judge hit at the same rate as their previous 15-game stretches, Witt would only surpass Judge in batting average and tie him in fWAR. This means the conversation around the MVP race will need to go beyond just their stats up till now!
To improve their chances of winning the next game and boosting Bobby Witt Jr.’s MVP candidacy, the Royals could focus on a few key strategies. What do you think those can be? Drop your suggestions in the comments!
Debate
Bobby Witt Jr.'s 30-30 record is impressive, but does it matter if the Royals keep losing?