Mike Matheny on Bobby Witt Jr.’s Big Day: ‘Pretty Fun to Watch'
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With a win over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday afternoon, the Kansas City Royals secured a 2-1 series lead and at least a split of the four-game set. Kansas City's 7-3 victory came on the heels of a quality starting pitching performance from Brady Singer, but it was accompanied by an offensive explosion from the Royals' bats.
Four different Royals did the heavy lifting in regards to driving in runs on Saturday, although no one was more impactful than rookie Bobby Witt Jr. The club's former top prospect (he's graduated from MLB's rankings due to experience) went 3-for-5 at the plate against Minnesota, collecting a pair of RBIs in the process. All three of Witt's hits were doubles, and he was seeing the plate well all game long. After the outing, Royals manager Mike Matheny touched on how truly special Witt has been as of late.
May 28, 2022; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt (7) runs to second on an RBI double against the Minnesota Twins during the third inning at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Nick Wosika-USA TODAY Sports
"Bobby is just starting to really... see him find and figure out the strike zone," Matheny said. "He's maintaining the zone better, and he's got freakish ability when he puts it all together. Just watching how the ball jumps off his bat, how quick his hands are, how he makes things happen — pretty fun to watch right now."
Things haven't always gone swimmingly for Witt, as he started his 2022 campaign quite poorly. Through 10 games, the 21-year-old was slashing .128/.150/.231 with a 32.5% strikeout rate. Not including Saturday's data, he's posted a 135 wRC+ since. In his last 10 games leading up to Saturday, he had a 1.025 OPS, a 188 wRC+ and a 21.4% strikeout rate. He's also been hitting the ball harder than at any other point this season, and a pair of batted balls hit 110 mph or greater from his most recent game will only improve that trend.
Witt was quite easily the best player in the game against the Twins, as Baseball Savant's WPA leaderboard has him as a plus-25.5. The next closest player? Trevor Larnach at plus-14.8. Witt also, unsurprisingly, posted the two highest exit velocities of anyone.
Fastballs have been an issue for Witt this year, as he's posting his worst hitting stats against the pitch. Heading into Saturday's game, he was hitting just .203 against fastballs with a .316 SLG and a whopping 22 strikeouts. Of his three doubles against the Twins, however, two of them were against four-seam fastballs. That success could be a turning point moving forward.
Witt is not only making better contact, but he's making harder contact while striking out less and also slowly finding his way against troublesome offerings from opposing pitchers. The game appears to be slowing down for him, which is a scary sight for the rest of baseball. Matheny's comments after Saturday's game paint a pretty clear picture: He's in awe of the rookie phenom just like everyone else is.
