It's the Bobby Witt Jr. Show - The sequel

MVP! MVP! MVP!

At this point, what do you even say? Or, more specifically, in my case, what do I even write?

How do we make sense of what we’re seeing without coming off either in a wildly hyperbolic fashion or selling the accomplishments short? If you play a video game like MLB The Show and you create a player, yet pull all the sliders down to the beginner level, you’ll go on a hitting binge. At some point, it probably stops being fun because it’s something akin to a cheat code. Yet, we’re seeing that cheat code in real life and I don’t think any of us wants it to end.

What Bobby Witt Jr. is doing is special. It’s beyond special. It’s ridiculous. It’s beyond ridiculous. It’s insane. It’s beyond insane.

The Royals won on Monday, 8-5. They won because they have Bobby Witt Jr. on their team.

Entering the eighth inning on Monday in Chicago, the Royals trailed the Hapless White Sox 5-2. It was, if you believe it, a low point in the season. Truly. The Royals had just closed out a homestand where they dropped two of three to the Diamondbacks and then two of three to the Cubs. Now they were off to the South Side of Chicago where good teams go to pad their victory total. The Sox were riding a 14-game losing streak. They were trading everyone. They are the 21st-century version of the ‘62 Mets.

If we know anything about this White Sox team (other than that the team is awful) is their bullpen is worse than awful. Especially now, with their flurry of activity ahead of the trade deadline. After the Royals worked starter Chris Flexen for nine hits yet only scored two runs, patience was the mood of the evening.

As you would hope (or expect) the Royals were able to chip away against reliever Steven Wilson in the eighth. Hunter Renfroe and MJ Melendez hit back-to-back home runs with one out in the inning to cut the Royals’ deficit to one. At that moment, it was officially on.

After Freddy Fermin popped out for the second out of the inning, the Royals needed another baserunner. They got it when Maikel Garcia singled. Now, they needed some production to move that baserunner around. Enter Adam Frazier. The Sox countered with John Brebbia.

Frazier, to be clear, has not been a productive addition to this team. He’s hitting just 197/.281/.282 in 211 plate appearances. That’s good for a 58 OPS+, the lowest mark of his career. Yet the hallmark of the 2024 Royals is to expect the unexpected. Sure, the thunder in the lineup resides in the top half. But it’s been the guys at the lower end who have often jumpstarted a rally. And that’s just what Frazier did, coming off the bench as a pinch hitter and working a 10-pitch plate appearance.

Garcia swiped second on pitch eight, putting just a little more pressure on Brebbia. On pitch 10, Brebbia broke, hitting Frazier.

Up next was Michael Massey. An unlikely leadoff hitter, more emblematic of the Royals issues finding someone (anyone!) who can do something productive at the top of the order. Massey has struggled since coming back from the back issues that sidelined him in May. Entering play Monday, he’s hit just .197/.230/.338 in his last 74 plate appearances. Doesn’t exactly scream leadoff hitter, does it?

Yet in the eighth inning, Massey did exactly what a leadoff hitter is supposed to do—he made Brebbia work.

I love that he took a strike. Or, should I say, a “strike.” Brebbia was working Massey away, away and away. Yet he couldn’t grab the edge of the zone. After drawing even at 2-2, Massey watched two fastballs pass well outside the zone. Not even this home plate umpire could be tempted.

Now the bases are loaded. And that man, Bobby Witt Jr. is stepping to the plate. The moments just seem to find the superstars.

The superstars seem to rise to the occasion.

It’s a slider down. First pitch. Not a bad one, but Brebbia is facing Bobby Witt Jr..

I love the approach from Witt here. Normally, if I was writing about a mortal ballplayer, I would implore them to take a pitch or two. Brebbia had thrown 16 pitches to that point and had shown a somewhat strained relationship with both his command and the strike zone in general. Make him throw a strike. Show that he can do it.

Witt, because he’s amazing, took the opposite approach. If the ball was in the area where Witt could get a good swing on it, he was going to take a rip. Brebbia would want to jump ahead here. He was liable to groove one. Be ready.

Brebbia didn’t really groove one. Yet it didn’t really matter. Because that’s Bobby Witt Jr. Twenty-five guys on his back. He’s got this.

One pitch. One swing. Four runs.

Ballgame.

Except Witt wasn’t done. There were still outs to be recorded. There was still defense to be played.

That was the first batter of the ninth inning for Chicago. I’m fairly certain at that point, if they had a white flag in the home dugout, they would’ve waved it and then personally handed it to Witt. Sometimes, there can be honor in surrender. When your opponent is doing that? Yeah.

But 27 outs are required. And for out number 27, Witt did this…

Did he save his best moment for last? How can you rank the three things he did at the end of the game? Why would you? Just let them cascade over you, heightening your baseball consciousness.

I think what I love most about this last play is that it happened so fast. Too fast for the director to get the shot of Witt taking that first step, the second step and the full dive. My goodness, what a way to end this game.

When the time comes to have the discussion about Witt and the MVP award, I’m not sure there will be much to say. Just put the eighth and ninth innings of this game on a loop. The offense. The defense. The clutchiness. The leadership. What he means to this ballclub…It’s all there. Perfectly distilled into two innings of a random Monday night baseball game in Chicago.

What a special, special player. It’s a privilege to watch Bobby Witt Jr. play baseball.