The Royals are reassigning top prospect Bobby Witt Jr. to the minor leagues, report Ken Rosenthal and Alec Lewis of the Athletic (Twitter link). He is likely to start the season at Double-A, per Jeff Passan of ESPN (via Twitter).
That’s hardly a surprise, given that Witt has yet to play a single game above rookie ball since being drafted out of high school in 2019. Some speculation had arisen that Witt could be a major league option right out of the gate after the 20-year-old impressed during spring training. General manager Dayton Moore even left that door open earlier this week, but a minor-league assignment always seemed the most likely outcome.
With Adalberto Mondesi entrenched at shortstop, any chance Witt had at making the team likely involved moving him (or Mondesi) to second base. Instead, it seems Kansas City will turn to Nicky Lopez and/or non-roster invitee Hanser Alberto at the keystone.
Witt, the second overall pick in that 2019 draft, is universally regarded by public prospect evaluators as a top thirty farmhand in the sport. He draws plenty of praise for his power and defensive ability. If Witt performs well in the minors, he might more realistically emerge as a big league option later in the year. By demoting Witt, the Royals also ensure he won’t accrue a full year of MLB service time in 2021, keeping him under team control through at least 2027. In this case, though, there’s a rather justifiable on-field argument for keeping Witt off the MLB roster on Opening Day.
PRE-EMPTIVE REBUTTAL: THIS IS NOT SERVICE TIME MANIPULATION. Dayton Moore does not play games with service time.
Every single writer will accuse every single team, of service time manipulation, every time they send a kid down.
You realize this writer didn’t make said accusation, right? He was just laying out facts
He hasn’t played above Rookie ball. Of course this isn’t service time manipulation. No one is going to think that.
really. have you seen nicky lopez play? if anyone needs time in AA.
more interested to see if Whit plays 2B
Dozier or so on in OF gets injured or on a Cold streak.
Dude got sent to LOW A. Not even high A. He’ll be lucky to be up before June of 2022. Low Freaking A
That doesn’t mean anything they just parked him somewhere on paper, minor league rosters don’t need to be set until May. MLB.com beat writer reported he’ll start the season in AA.
Look at Acuna’s rise through the minors and understand that where he is currently placed has no meaning to where he ultimately lands
Look on Twitter
@tlb you don’t know. Do you work for the Royals ?
I don’t know that we’re not all living in the matrix, either. He brought up Brady Singer to pitch in the second game of the season last year and has a long history of promoting players when gaming service time would’ve saved the team money and bought extra years of control, to the point that many Royals fans have criticized him for not playing ENOUGH games with service time. Dayton Moore, right or wrong, has proven time and time again that the relationship with the player is paramount, even sometimes at the expense of on the field performance.
That was a special situation last year with the 60 games Brad keller was on the covid list And Brady probably would have been brought up sometime during the summer had it been a regular 162 game season.
Obviously, but clearly service time was not a deciding factor. There were plenty of other arms he could have turned to if he wanted to manipulate service time.
Thank you.
This is not service – time manipulation.
It’s trade-deadline manipulation.
Moore didn’t sign a single Free Agent to a deal over 2-years and most were to 1-year deals. This is what being “transactional” looks like..
Carlos Santana, Hanser Alberto – these players were acquired because they have post-season trade value. Santana is an OBP machine. Hanser Alberto is a utility-man extrodinaire – any team who loses a top player will come calling for him.
If you look at Moore’s signings this off-season – Santana, Alberto, Taylor, Dyson, Minor – these all scream short-term flips. A 32-year old starter. 2 speedster CFs. OBP, and Utility. Not to mention – Jorge Soler is in the last year of his deal.
Moore is prepping to flip everything he’s bought. He’s just gotta get to June – and then we’ll see a flood of youth move up.
🙁
#LetTheKidsPlay
…at the levels they’re qualified to play at.
And he isn’t qualified? Just as qualified as someone like Crotchet
Of course he plays games with service time. That said, of course he was not going to break with the team. How many ABs does he gave above rookie ball?
0 lmao only played rookie ball
No he does not. Didn’t play it with Hosmer. Didn’t play it with Singer. If a players is ready, Moore won’t hold them back.
Of course he does. Every GM does. That’s no knock on him, but he’d be a fool not to play those games.
Preller doesn’t. Bridich doesn’t. Friedman doesn’t. Girsch doesn’t.
I’m sure service time is a factor that is considered, but there is no evidence that Dayton Moore has ever held back a player that was ready for the purposes of manipulating their service time and ample evidence of him bringing up players where waiting would be beneficial to the bottom line.
I’m just curious why the GM made those comments earlier about the possibility that they’d keep him up. Did Witt have a terrible week that showed he needed more time in the minors or was the GM just blowing smoke?
Probably just the GM showing confidence in Witt. I don’t think the Royals ever seriously considered giving him a roster spot on opening day.
Could still add him by DFA somebody later.
Showing confidence in him like that goes along way I’m with you on this dan55.. they may have seriously thought about keeping him up. They also prolly thought about what might happen to his confidence if they kept him and and he struggled. All around smart move on the royals part
100% this. Shout out to Witt. Everyone who doesn’t follow the Royals every day likes to put all these motives on Dayton Moore. Anyone who knows the Royals can tell you GMDM is a different cat. He doesn’t follow conventional wisdom and he’s very predictable, those two traits are his biggest strengths and they’re also his highest weaknesses.
To shut down any sports journalist that instantly goes to the service time manipulation well.
Probably because of what happened in Seattle.
SERVICE TIME MANIPULATION!!! SOMEBODY CALL TONY CLARK!!!
Royal mistake. kids ready. Best player on the field for KC. Lopez sucks. It’s just to control him 1 more year.
He’s über-talented, but K:BB ratio of 10:2 – if he were a pitcher, he’d be ready. A little more plate discipline and he could be an elite hitter.
The guy has nearly 40 games in rookie ball and had a good spring training. What is left to prove at the minor league-level?…
L O L
Right! There are at least 50 players that meet this criteria and need to be brought up to the majors ASAP! Forget the Union – Call the ACLU ! ! ! !
No this kid needs more seasoning. He is going to be a superstar and is athletic and has the intellect to play any position because he is a ballplayer. Besides no need to rush him because the Royals are still a 4th place team and the best they can do is win maybe 80 games.
You guys do realize that all he has to do is miss the first 16 days of the season and the Royals automatically gain another year of control over him?! It’s not like he would have to stay in the minors 70 or 80% of the season in order for the Royals to get more control over him!
Everyone here knows that.
180 professional PA’s. All in Rookie ball. He needs more seasoning.
He’s better than Lopez right now, but if there is an ounce of wiggle room, he was going to back to the minors,
Maybe.
But Hanser Alberto is a far, far better player than both of them at this point.
The truth is that he has less than 1 year of minor league experience. Could he make it in the big league right now? Possibly, or he could struggle and get sent back down. I dont want him to be rushed like Alex Gordon and have him take 2 years to get back on track.
Low A. Apparently he’s not close to the Majors. Man, I assumed at least high A.
id imagine he might start at A+ actually. A- was retroactive to the last level he was assigned to, typical of minors reassignments.
He’s going to AA according to every report I’ve seen.
I hate the only rookie ball argument. He played every day at the alternative site last year against way better pitching than he’d see in a real A or AA ball seasoning and all season long everyone who put eyes on him, both player and coaches, raved about him. Obviously it’s not the same thing as live games, but it ain’t nothing, either.
I agree he should start the season in the minors but to say that he “only” played rookie ball is misleading.
Call him up when the time is right for both the team and the player… this year or next…. I hope Bobby Witt Jr > Lebron James
TLB2001 beat me to it. But stop accusing teams of service time manipulation every time they don’t put a top prospect on the MLB roster on opening day. Witt has 180 professional PA’s and has never played above Rookie ball.
Now to find out if the people who bought his bowman cards when he was hot in spring overpaid.
Depending on where he is assigned for minor leagues they could just go there and get his autograph on a card/ball probably a little bit easier than getting his autograph in Kansas City..
I might be the ONLY Royals fan that wants Bobby to play in the minors for at least one season. I just remember four years ago when Mondesi was given the second base job and he was so over matched (he was chosen because of spring training numbers)! Whit Merrifield meanwhile had been demoted to AAA where he had 400 batting average after nine games!
Mondesi still hasn’t figured it out. Witt is a different player then Mondesi. He looked lost for 1/2 a season
Honestly I think this is a sign that they intend to compete. If we’re losing 105 games again this year I think GMDM lets Witt develop in the majors.