Royals Young Superstar Is No. 3 Player in MLB Playoffs, Per Latest Report
Role players are important in the Major League Baseball postseason, but a team is nothing without its superstars.
In 2024, the Kansas City Royals have been heavily dependent on one superstar, and it has paid dividends in the form of an unexpected playoff berth. Just one year after losing their 106th game to tie a franchise record, the Royals are going dancing in October.
24-year-old shortstop sensation Bobby Witt Jr. has carried the Royals all season long. But the odds are stacked against Kansas City in a loaded American League playoff field, so Witt might need to step his game up even more for the Royals to have shot at a World Series.
If anyone can single-handedly carry his team to victory, it may be Witt. On Tuesday, Will Leitch of MLB.com ranked Witt as the third-best player in the MLB playoffs, behind only Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees and Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
"Witt would have won the AL MVP Award in any other season, and considering how young he is, there is clearly one coming in his future, and probably several," Leitch said. "He’s about to get a huge introduction on the grandest possible stage."
In just his third big-league season, Witt led all of baseball in hits (211) and batting average (.332), while becoming the only shortstop ever to have two 30-homer, 30-stolen base seasons. He racked up 9.4 wins above replacement and if not for the otherworldly contributions of Judge, likely would have won all the individual awards.
The playoffs, however, are not an individual game. And Witt's supporting cast, which consists mainly of sturdy catcher Salvador Perez and Vinnie Pasquantino returning from a broken thumb, doesn't rank well in comparison to his AL counterparts like Judge and the Baltimore Orioles' Gunnar Henderson.
If Witt is going to put a ring on his finger at the end of the month, he'll have to do a lot of the dirty work himself. But after the year he just had, no one would be surprised if the young superstar rose to the occasion.
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Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org