Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year, we ask questions of the most plugged-in Kansas City Royals fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
Earlier this week, we asked you which player's performance had you the most excited for 2027:
A whopping 80% of you selected Jac's breakout as the reason you were most excited for next season. And, honestly, I can't blame you. As the self-declared captain of the Jac Wagon, I mostly approve. And, in fact, that's how I also voted.
That said, 80% is a lot of you. That only left 13% for Cameron's post-break performance, 4% for Carter Jensen's solid (and rapidly improving) season, and just a measly 3% for Bobby Witt Jr.'s continued excellence. I can understand why many of you might not have been as excited for Carter Jensen's performance prior to this week; he'd been in kind of a slump and hadn't had the season many had hoped for. But I honestly expected Bobby to do a little bit better than that.
I wonder how much of that is just familiarity; we're all used to Bobby being Bobby. Kind of like Chiefs fans are used to Patrick Mahomes being Pat. But I also wonder how much of it is tied up in the fact that so dang much of his value is tied to his defensive abilities and how badly his power numbers have nose-dived since 2024. Flashy defensive plays are exciting, no doubt, but everyone knows that chicks dig the long ball. (Chicks, in this case, being baseball fans in general.)
I guess the good news on that front is that, for most of his career, Bobby's SLG and xSLG have been very closely aligned. This year, however, his SLG is a full 62 points less than his xSLG. Last year, of course, he had only 23 home runs but at least added 47 doubles. The bad news, though, is that his xSLG is still a full 80 points behind what he did in 2024 and even 25 points behind 2023. Without a very strong September, this will be Bobby's worst ISO season in his career. He's still young, and I have questions about how healthy he was before he went on the IL, so a rebound is absolutely a possibility next season. But we are rapidly approaching a world in which we may need to accept that Bobby Witt Jr. might not be a perennial MVP candidate after all.
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