Bobby Witt Jr. keeps stacking honors, and the latest one came with little surprise. The Royals shortstop was named to the All-MLB First Team for the third straight year, with the selection announced at the MLB Awards in Las Vegas on November 11.
Witt Jr. was one of several standout players recognized, alongside Yordan Álvarez, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Junior Caminero. For Kansas City, the nod only adds to a résumé that already looks unusually packed for a player still early in his career.
Since the All-MLB Team awards were introduced in 2019, Witt Jr. is only the second Royals player to land on the First Team. Salvador Perez did it in back-to-back seasons in 2020 and 2021.
The bigger conversation around Witt Jr. is where all of this eventually places him in Royals history. It is still too soon to talk seriously about him as one of the greatest shortstops ever, but the case for him as the best player to wear a Royals uniform is getting harder to ignore.
George Brett still holds that standard for now, and the numbers are daunting. Brett finished his 21-year career with 3,154 hits and 84.6 fWAR, benchmarks that will not be easy for anyone to chase down.
Witt Jr., though, has made a strong start. In five seasons, he has already piled up 879 hits in 769 games, which works out to about 176 hits per year. At that pace, he would be on track to pass Brett in career hits by 2039, when he would be 39 years old.
The gap in fWAR is also notable, but not out of reach. Witt Jr. has already reached 33.6 fWAR in his first five seasons, and if he keeps producing at his current 6.7 fWAR per season rate, he would need a little more than seven and a half more seasons to catch Brett there.
So no, the Hall of Fame speech can wait. What matters right now is that Witt Jr. has already become the kind of player who makes elite production feel routine. For the Royals in the 2020s, he remains the centerpiece, and more First-Team recognition may be coming before long.
In Other News...
Royals Prospects Are Sending Very Different Signals In Arizona
The Arizona Fall League has become a useful late-season measuring stick for the Royals farm system, and this years group is offering a mixed read. Nine Kansas City prospects are in the showcase circuit, giving the organization another chance to compare progress against the backdrop of recent minor league seasons, injuries, and developmental hurdles. For a club that has spent plenty of time trying to sort out which young players are ready to matter in Kansas City, the AFL is less about box scores than about separating real forward movement from a short burst of good results.
Some of the early returns have been encouraging, with a few players showing signs that their recent work is carrying over in a meaningful way. Others have left a more complicated impression, either because the production has lagged or because health and consistency remain part of the conversation. For the Royals, that split matters, because the fall league is often where the organization gets its clearest look at who is pushing toward a bigger role and who still has more proving to do. [Read more 🡒]
Bobby Witt Jr. Keeps Giving Royals Fans A Bigger MVP Debate
Bobby Witt Jr. keeps stacking up the kind of seasons that make award voters and Royals fans revisit the same question in a bigger way each winter. He just became the first shortstop to earn three All-MLB First Team selections since the honors began in 2019, a marker that speaks to both his consistency and the standard he has set at a premium position.
The 2026 season only sharpened the case. Witt led American League shortstops in batting average, slugging percentage and doubles while continuing to impact games on defense, and now he is one of the finalists for the American League Most Valuable Player Award. For Kansas City, the debate is no longer about whether he belongs in the conversation. It is about how far that conversation can go. [Read more 🡒]
Royals Rookie Of The Year Drought Puts One Young Arm In Focus
Carter Jensens fifth-place finish in the 2026 American League Rookie of the Year race was a reminder of how long the Royals have gone without a winner in that category. It has been 23 years since Kansas City last produced a Rookie of the Year, a drought that hangs over every promising young player who starts to look like more than just a depth piece.
One of the next names to watch is Lucas Braun, the pitching prospect acquired from the Braves, who is viewed as a possible part of the Royals 2027 staff. Brauns appeal is less about flash than dependability, with a track record of steady minor league work and the kind of pitching profile that could put him in position to compete for the award if he reaches the majors on schedule. He may not carry the loudest upside in the system, but for a club still searching for its next breakthrough rookie, he is a logical arm to keep in focus. [Read more 🡒]