The Royals are trying to clinch the series on Wednesday evening against the Texas Rangers, as they are tied 3-3 going into the eighth inning. Even though they have five hits and drawn three walks, they have cooled off a bit since Vinnie Pasquantino hit a three-run blast off of Rangers starter Caleb Boushley in the first inning.
Regardless of those RISP struggles, they are still in line for the win at the time of this writing. A win would help them close the gap in the Wild Card race, especially with Cleveland, Seattle, and Boston all losing today.
I am not going to talk about tonight’s game but instead focus on three different things relating to the Royals in this edition of the “Jottings.” That includes Bobby Witt Jr. and his latest milestone, a top Royals pitching prospect’s Triple-A debut, and my first post for a new publication.
Bobby Hits 100th Career Home Run.
On Tuesday, Witt hit his 18th home run of the season, a two-run shot against Rangers reliever Cole Winn. Not only was that his 18th of the year, but it was also his 100th career home run.
As pointed out by the Royals, Witt is the youngest player in Royals history with 100 career home runs. He also joins the elite company of 25-year-old players who reached the 100+ home run mark at that age. That list includes Alex Rodriguez, Cal Ripken Jr., Francisco Lindor, and Hanley Ramirez.
Some Royals fans may have been disappointed with Bobby this season, especially after his tremendous 2024 season in which he finished runner-up in the AL MVP race to Aaron Judge of the Yankees.
That said, what Bobby did last year was unbelievable, especially for a third-year player. After all, 32 home runs, 31 stolen bases, a .332 average, and 10.5 fWAR mark in a season don’t just happen easily or frequently, even for the best players in baseball.
This season, his numbers have regressed a little bit, but Witt is still one of the most productive players in baseball, as demonstrated in his TJ Stats profile. While his whiff and Z-Contact% are down this year, he’s still looking pretty solid in nearly every other Statcast category.
Regarding his surface-level metrics, in 124 games, he has 18 home runs, 32 stolen bases, a .291 average, and 5.9 fWAR, according to Fangraphs. His fWAR is tied with Shohei Ohtani for the third-best mark for batters in baseball, behind only Seattle’s Cal Raleigh and Judge.
Safe to say, Royals fans are lucky to be able to watch Witt play baseball every day in a Kansas City Royals uniform.
Kudrna Makes Storm Chaser Debut
The Royals had recently promoted Ben Kudrna to Omaha from Double-A Northwest Arkansas, and it was well-deserved, especially considering how well he’s pitched recently.
In 20 outings and 19 starts with the Naturals this season, the Blue Valley Southwest product posted a 4.21 ERA and 1.29 WHIP in 94 innings of work. However, his FIP was much better at 3.48, and that was primarily due to a solid strikeout rate (24%) as well as K-BB% (15.7%), an improvement from a season ago in Northwest Arkansas (13.1%).
Kudrna’s Storm Chaser debut started promisingly enough, as he struck out the first Columbus hitter he faced: outfielder Kahlil Watson.
Here’s a look at how Kudrna got his punch out against Watson pitch-by-pitch, as illustrated in his Savant pitch chart.
He also was able to strike out Jhonkensy Noel, who played on Opening Day for the Guardians, on three pitches in the first inning. Kudrna was able to punch out Noel on a nasty slider, as seen in the video clip below.
Here’s how that strikeout looked on his pitch chart, via Savant.
Early on, Kudrna looked efficient and in control of the Clippers’ hitters. Unfortunately, he had a rough stretch in the sixth inning, which resulted in him allowing five hits on five runs and five walks in 5.1 IP. He did strike out four batters, which was a silver lining of his outing.
Here’s what his Stacast and TJ Stuff+ numbers looked like in his Omaha debut on Wednesday.
Kudrna produced 13 whiffs overall and a 33.3% whiff rate, which is encouraging, especially considering the step up in competition. That said, he did show some blemishes in his first Triple-A start.
His zone rate was only 40.6% and he allowed an xwOBACON of .500, both mediocre marks. In terms of pitch quality, his stuff didn’t look great overall, with a 97 TJ Stuff+. However, his changeup had a 53 grade, his slider had a 50 grade, and his cutter sported a 62 grade. His changeup was his best offering, as it not only produced an 80% whiff rate, but a .114 xwOBCON.
Kudrna attacked the armside edge with his changeup on Wednesday, and that approach seemed to be effective, as demonstrated by his pitch description chart via Savant.
Was it an unbelievable start from Kudrna? Not at all. He’s got to be better with his command, especially with his secondary offerings. Only his four-seamer and slider had zone rates over 40% on Wednesday.
Conversely, Kudrna showed against the Clippers why he was such a valued pitching prospect by the Royals. The stuff needs a little tweaking, in addition to the command, but Kudrna has the frame and profile to be a No. 3-5 starter at the MLB level in 2026.
First Article for “Just Baseball”
Last week, I announced that I would be the Royals Team Writer for “Just Baseball,” a national baseball website that covers everything from college to the MLB Draft to the Minors to MLB.
In my first post for Just Baseball, I decided to focus on the Royals’ situation at leadoff and how moving Mike Yastrzemski to leadoff (and Jonathan India down in the order) has helped turn around the Royals’ lackluster offense this month.
Here’s a Tweet of the post, which was published this morning.
Here’s a snippet from the piece, where I talk about Yaz’s power and why he could be due for a solid finish to the season for Kansas City.
What’s impressive about Yastrzemski’s line with the Royals is that he’s producing excellent offensive value in 16 games despite a subpar BABIP, which is .167. Conversely, his average exit velocity with the Royals is 92.7 mph, his barrel rate is 17.1%, and his hard-hit rate is 51.2%…
Therefore, Yastrzemski’s performance at leadoff not only feels sustainable for the remainder of the season due to his plate discipline, but his batted-ball and hard-hit ability as well. He could see some positive regression in his batting average if those hard-hit balls start to find some holes and gaps in the coming weeks.
Check out the full post at Just Baseball and subscribe and follow Just Baseball on all social media for some of the best baseball content around. I hope to write 3-4 posts a month there, so stay tuned for more posts from me on Just Baseball soon.
Photo Credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images