Royals MVP hopeful Bobby Witt Jr. is off to slow start during first two weeks

Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. has become a perennial American League MVP candidate, finishing seventh in 2023, second in 2024 and third in 2025. This season, however, he's off to a slow start. 

He's not the only Royals star to struggle so far. First baseman Vinnie Pasquantino is slashing .200/.302/.222, and Hall of Fame catcher Salvador Perez sports a .156/.224/.333 slash line. 

Witt's line isn't as terrible as that of his teammates, but it's still not great. He's slashing .273/.365/.295, but he only has one extra-base hit, and that was a double against Cleveland on Wednesday. Light-hitting outfielder Kyle Isbel has the same number of home runs (two) as Witt, Pasquantino and Perez combined. 

What is causing Bobby Witt Jr.'s poor start?

The good news is Witt has walked seven times already, and his walk rate is 13.5 percent, well over his 6.6 percent career mark. Another encouraging sign is that his hard-hit rate is a spectacular 60 percent, besting his stellar career average of 45.7 percent.

On the other hand, he's on pace to set a career-high strikeout rate of 19.2 percent, 1.3 percent over his career average. His barrel rate is paltry at 8.6 percent, especially in comparison to last season (12.5 percent) and 2024 (14.3 percent). 

Despite not squaring the ball up all that well, his line drive rate is well up considerably over his career norms (28.6 percent to 18.8 percent), and his ground-ball rate is down 2.7 percent from his career average (37 percent).

While the overall numbers aren't what everyone is used to seeing from Witt, there are enough positives to think that he could find his groove sooner rather than later. The lack of extra-base hits is concerning, considering he produced 76 last year and 88 in 2024, but the 60 percent hard-hit rate means it's just a matter of time before he breaks out.

Witt is stealing bases with seven in as many attempts, so that is excellent. He has only one run scored and just four RBI. Of course, those stats are more indicative of the players struggling around him than of his own slow start. 

He's also hitting .231 with runners in scoring position, going 3-for-16 with two walks and three strikeouts. Three of his four RBI have come in this situation, but again, this goes back to a lack of extra-base hits.

The season is still young. It won't be surprising to see Witt heat up with the temperature. He's tied for 14th in WAR at 0.5, but he's not that far behind the AL leader. Wilyer Abreu has a WAR of 1.0. If Witt gets red-hot for a week this early in the season, he'll be right up at the top in WAR. 

Witt is off to a slow start, but the Royals should be more worried about Pasquantino and Perez. If these three guys get it going offensively, the Royals will look like a different team and will be difficult to deal with.