In Witt We Trust: Hope surges in KC behind Royals star

I was in Kansas City last week, and even though they were talking about the Chiefs -- because so would you if you lived in Kansas City and Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce played for your team -- they were talking a lot about the Royals, too. It meant they were talking about Bobby Witt Jr. the way they once talked about the young George Brett there.

“You never know if a kid like this is going to come along,” an older Royals fan said. “But if you’re a baseball fan, what keeps you going is the hope that someday a player like Bobby will come along again.”

It doesn’t mean that the kid at short is going to the Hall of Fame the way Brett did, going to make this 1985 all over again in Kansas City, or 2015 -- the second and last time the Royals won it all after they’d come so close against the Giants in 2014, with the tying run in a 3-2 game on third in the bottom of the ninth. But Witt has given Kansas City a full-fledged young baseball star again, and he has brought hope back to a really good baseball place.

Even in a season when Aaron Judge might be on his way to hitting 60 home runs again, and Juan Soto is doing all manner of Soto things hitting ahead of Judge, Witt is hearing “MVP” chants from his hometown fans. That might be wishful thinking if Judge keeps going the way he is, but it’s hard to find one good reason not to dream if you're a Royals fan right now.

Witt hit a first-inning home run against Boston on Wednesday night and a big double later as Kansas City got a game off the Red Sox and avoided a three-game series sweep.

Here’s what Boston manager Alex Cora said about Witt after the game:

“That kid is special. The way he conducts himself, the way he plays the game, it’s a joy from our dugout. I hate it, but I love it. I think the game is in good hands.”

Neither Witt nor the Royals have won anything yet, of course. They’re still in third place in the AL Central behind the Guardians and Twins. Entering play Thursday, Kanas City was clinging to the final AL Wild Card spot. But the Royals are only four games behind the first-place Guardians and a half-game behind the Twins in the division. So everything is still within reach from here to the end of the regular season.

None of this happens without Witt having the kind of season he is having, carrying his team the way he has. He has 22 home runs, 84 RBIs and 99 runs scored, a 1.000 OPS and a .606 slugging percentage. He's hitting .349, 17 points higher than the next-best average in the AL (the Guardians' Steven Kwan) and 47 points higher than the DOdgers' Shohei Ohtani and the Padres' Luis Arraez, who lead the National League.

Witt has a solid team around him in Kansas City. The Royals hang in there and come from behind a lot, and there's nothing stopping them from coming on hard in August and September to take the division. But there isn’t another regular .300 hitter for manager Matt Quatraro to offer Witt protection in the lineup.

Witt is the player Alex Cora described as special, who just keeps doing special things for the Royals. There have been a lot of fine Kansas City players since George Brett. The club still has a great catcher in Salvador Perez, who has 20 home runs and is hitting .280. But the Royals have a total star again in Witt. He is the one to watch in Kansas City, and he is the one who has given Kansas City fans hope.

In this time of Ohtani, in this season when Judge is hitting like it’s 2022 all over again and when he and Soto have given the Yankees the kind of 1-2 punch that has people talking about Ruth and Gehrig and Maris and Mantle, Witt has been as valuable to his team as Ohtani and Judge and Soto have been to theirs. And when you add it all up, the Royals might need him more, this young guy who just turned 24 in June.

When Witt was asked about the chants he hears, he said this after Wednesday’s game:

“[The fans] are showing up. We’ve just got to keep doing our thing.”

While he keeps doing his. Cora is right, the way he usually is. The game is in good hands in Kansas City, now that a player like Witt came along.