Kansas City Royals find their Patrick Mahomes with Bobby Witt Jr.
The Kansas City Royals went with the easy pick in the 2019 MLB Draft, selecting Bobby Witt Jr. with the second overall pick. Witt is a shortstop out of Colleyville Heritage High School in Colleyville, Texas.
The most interesting part of Monday evening’s draft, at least for Kansas City Royals fans, was what MLB analyst Jim Callis said about the selection. After the pick had been made, Callis compared the pick to that of when the Kansas City Chiefs traded up to draft Patrick Mahomes two years ago (see tweet below for full context).
In other words, Callis believes that Witt is going to be the savior for the Kansas City Royals.
It’s definitely worth noting that the pressure wouldn’t be as high for Witt, as the Royals won a World Series in 2015 and were also in the fall classic in 2014. The Chiefs haven’t won a Super Bowl in 50 years.
Interesting to hear @jimcallisMLB on MLB Network say Bobby Witt, Jr “is going be to the Royals what Patrick Mahomes is to the Chiefs.”
— Joel Goldberg (@goldbergkc) June 3, 2019
Even with that said, however, 2015 feels like a long time ago for Royals fans, as the team last year was awful and this year’s team is somehow even worse.
If these bad seasons end up resulting in Bobby Witt Jr. and a top prospect in next year’s draft coming through the farm system together, then watching bad baseball for a few years is worth it. That’s comparable to the late 2000s when the Royals had several top five draft picks and built their organization from the ground up with those selections.
Witt is almost 19 years old and is a five-tool player. JJ Cooper notes in the tweet below that Witt is the franchise piece for the Royals organization and he also alluded to what I mentioned above, comparing this to the Royals’ drafts ten years ago. This could be like Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer being drafted back to back in 2007 and 2008.
2. Royals: Bobby Witt Jr., SS: +Speed, +power, +defense, +arm. Royals' rebuild gets its franchise piece, much like the Moustakas/Hosmer picks a decade ago.
— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) June 3, 2019
Franchise players in baseball are much different in football. In the NFL, having a quarterback is really all that matters. It took the Chiefs five decades to find their true franchise talent at the most important position in sports, but now that they have him, the possibilities are endless. A Super Bowl is possible every year because of what Mahomes brings to the table.
Baseball is definitely more of a crapshoot and one position can’t carry the entire team (at least not in most cases). A World Series isn’t guaranteed just because a team has a franchise player.
When the Royals were in the postseason in 2014 and 2015, those players were all important for the organization’s run to the top. While Hosmer could have been argued as the franchise player during that time, it truly was a team effort that got the team their World Series title.
Next. Every Top Five Draft Pick in Royals History. dark
Still – Having a franchise player on your ball club is important. Bobby Witt Jr. was the no-brainer pick for the Kansas City Royals in this year’s MLB Draft and while the Patrick Mahomes comparisons are probably too much this early on, Royals fans love hearing all of this hype about their newest Royal.