MLB: Inside the bad, the good; How did KC Royals get prospect Bobby Witt Jr.?

After years of rebuilding process, the Kansas City Royals they opened a competitive window for the middle of the previous decade. From 2013 to 2017, the club had five consecutive seasons of at least 80 wins, including back-to-back trips to the World Series in 2014 and 2015, emerging victorious in the final season.

In 2018 however, that competitive window was slammed shut when the team lost 104 games, and then 103 games the following year (2019), prior to the season shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic:

Of course, one of the benefits of such miserable losing seasons is the highest draft picks. In the 2019 MLB draft, the Orioles retained the top overall pick after their 47-win season, opting for Adley Rutschman with that selection.

The second choice was for the Royals, who elected Bobby witt jr., a shortstop from Colleyville Heritage High School in Colleyville, Texas, who was still a couple of weeks away from his 19th birthday.

It may interest you: MILB Prospectazo of the Royals loses HR by not stepping on the plate

The Royals were quick to agree to a deal with Witt and put him to work right away, as he played 37 rookie games that year. After that brief assignment, Witt was ranked the 24th best prospect in the league by Baseball America. 2020 was a lost season, in a sense, as the pandemic wiped out the minor league seasons.

Rafael Martinez

I am a fan of the King of Sports, especially the Boston Red Sox in MLB and in general all of Mexican baseball. This profession has given me the opportunity to cover major events such as the Caribbean Series, the LMB All Star, LMP (uninterrupted since 2009), signings of important players. I had the chance to attend the 2013 World Classic in Arizona, USA, albeit as a fan. Apart from this beautiful sport, I love basketball, where I have also narrated games and even a friendly NBA 10 years ago, but I carry baseball in my veins. Graduated in Communication Sciences from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS) , from which I graduated in 2011. I was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa and started in the world of sports journalism in 2004 in the newspaper El Sol de Mazatlán, where I was a baseball columnist and reporter at the same time. In January 2009 I came to El Debate as a journalist reporter and it was almost six years (in the first stage), until in November 2014 I emigrated to the radio providing my services in Línea Directa-Grupo RSN. My cycle there ended in July 2019 and within days, El Debate gave me another opportunity to work and opened the doors for me again. That is how I came to Al Bat, where I have been since 2019 as a web journalist.

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