The Royals’ hot play continues. On Thursday afternoon, Kansas City beat the White Sox 10-0, completing a four-game sweep of their division rival.
The Royals are now 23-16, putting them 2.5 games behind the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central division. Kansas City is 9-1 in its last 10 games, an impressive feat. However, the Tigers and Guardians are 7-3 in their previous 10 games, which has prevented the Royals from making much ground on either team.
Let’s quickly review the three stars from this Royals weekday sweep. As always, this series is presented by the Crown Talk podcast. Episode six can be found on Spotify and YouTube, with the latter available in the embed below.
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1st Star: Bobby Witt Jr. (8 H, 3 2B, 1 HR, 4 R, 6 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K, 4 SB)
I was tempted to give this award to Maikel Garcia, who’s been on fire at the plate since April 20th, as the Royals’ social media highlighted after yesterday’s victory.
However, it’s hard to ignore what Bobby did against the White Sox in the four-game set. He collected eight hits, including three doubles and a home run, and stole four bases in the series. Witt only struck out once, drew one walk, and collected the game-winning hit on Tuesday night in the Royals’ 4-3 comeback win.
After finishing runner-up in the AL Cy Young race last year, Witt shows no signs of slowing down in 2025. He’s produced a 2.5 fWAR in 39 games and 171 plate appearances, and he has a .389 wOBA, which puts him in the 93rd percentile of the league, as illustrated in his rolling wOBA chart via TJ Stats.
Witt will have to catch Aaron Judge again in the MVP race, which won’t be easy. Judge has a .521 wOBA and 3.3 fWAR in 37 games and 165 plate appearances. With the Royals winning, Witt could make up some ground this summer, especially if Witt’s power begins to tick up with the warmer weather.
2nd Star: Kris Bubic (7 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K)
It was another gem from the “Croatian Sensation” on Thursday afternoon.
Not only did he shut out the White Sox, but he struck out seven batters in seven innings of work. Bubic did an excellent job of flooding the zone (69.9% strike rate), generating a lot of swing-and-miss (16 whiffs), and minimizing hard contact, all demonstrated in his TJ Statcast summary data.
According to TJ Stats, Bubic had an overall TJ Stuff+ of 102, highlighted by his four-seamer and changeup grades of 60 and 64, respectively. His whiff rate generated was 32%, his chase rate was 40.9%, and his xwOBACON was 0.286. All three are good marks and excellent marks, and they explain why Bubic kept the White Sox limited offensively on Thursday.
There was some concern that Bubic’s stuff would decline slightly in the rotation move. While there has been some expected regression, his PLV metrics still demonstrate that he has solid pitch quality, especially for a No. 4 starter in the rotation.
With a 1.69 ERA in eight starts and 48 IP, Bubic may be this year’s Seth Lugo because he could be a dark horse Cy Young candidate by season’s end.
3rd Star: Cole Ragans (5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 11 K)
After missing his last start due to a groin injury, Ragans returned to the mound on Monday and set the tone in the Royals’ 3-0 win. Even though he only went five innings, he struck out 11 White Sox hitters, the fourth time this year that he’s struck out 10 or more batters in a game.
Ragans had issues with pitch efficiency, so he was limited to only five innings (which prevented him from getting the quality start). However, that was to be expected for a pitcher who hadn’t pitched in a week and a half.
Despite those pitch-count issues, he was brilliant otherwise, based on the TJ Stats data.
Ragans didn’t generate a ton of chase, and his four-seamer got walloped (0.538 xwOBACON). However, he produced a 35.4% whiff overall, and his stuff profiled well. He had an overall TJStuff+ over 104; all five offerings produced a 50 or higher grade. His changeup was his best offering on Monday, as demonstrated by a 58.3% zone rate, 46.2% whiff rate, .209 xwOBACON, and 64 grade.
Below is an example of Ragans effectively using the changeup to get Edgar Quero to strike out and end the inning.
With Ragans back in form and healthy, the Royals have the best rotation in the AL Central and perhaps in all of baseball.
That will undoubtedly help Kansas City’s quest for a division crown and return to the postseason.
Graphic Credit: Kevin O’Brien and Jared Perkins/Crown Talk Podcast