Stepping Forward: How Can Bobby Witt Jr. Improve On His 2025 Line?

[Joe Rutland]

Image courtesy of © Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. has been making inroads toward earning even more respect around the major leagues for his hitting efforts. He’s been able to put together some very good seasons, too. Heading into next season, though, Witt needs to focus on a few pain points.

His numbers in some areas showed marked improvement, reflecting a growing sense of maturity and ability to grasp the finer points of hitting big-league pitching.

According to Witt’s spray chart on Baseball Savant, he pulled a majority of his home runs to left or left-center field. The same can be said for extra-base hits beyond homers as well. When it comes to singles, though, Witt had a knack for connecting all over the field.

His exit velocity has improved season over season between 2024 and 2025, going from 92.7 in 2024 to 93.3 last season. Opposing pitchers challenged him with more fastballs in the previous season, while his offspeed offerings dipped a little bit. Witt’s chase percentage also moved downward in the previous season, going from 32.1% in 2024 to 30.7% last season.

Entering next season, what steps can Witt take to be even better?

First off, keep on improving his slash line. Last season’s numbers were not too kind to Witt. His 2025 slash line ended up being .290/.340/.504/.844; a large step back from 2024, when he posted a slash line of .332/.389/.588/.977.

Across the board, his hitting numbers were all down from his 2024 season. While the data indicates this is taking place, Witt was in the 90+ percentile in the MLB Percentile Rankings. These areas included xwOBA, xBA, xSLG, and Average Exit Velocity categories.

Witt needs to learn to control his power and push balls more toward right- and right-center field. Does he have the power stroke to make this happen? Of course he does. The statistics reveal that Witt can hit doubles, triples, and home runs to the far reaches of any MLB ballpark. This ability helped him earn Silver Slugger and All-MLB honors in 2025, despite his slight regression (which shows his value as a shortstop).

Yet the power surge that Royals fans were looking for from Witt in the 2025 season just wasn’t there. He’ll be entering his fourth MLB season with Kansas City in 2026, too.

Don’t be surprised, though, if Witt gets off to a hot start next season and puts himself again in the AL MVP discussion. He’s shown a willingness to learn and grow from one year to the next.

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