2025 Royals Hot Takes
It's that time of year where I go bold when it comes to the 2025 Royals.
One of the best parts about making predictions is that you can just delete the evidence down the road if you’re wrong or throw it in people’s faces when you’re right. I don’t know a lot of face throwing, if you catch my drift. But that doesn’t stop me from putting together a group of hot takes every year. Last year I predicted:
The Royals would be A LOT better.
Bobby Witt Jr. would make the All Star team.
Someone you like will get traded.
Hunter Renfroe would struggle and the Royals would eat his contract in 2025.
John McMillon would lead the Royals in saves.
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Okay, so that’s pretty good. The first one was very accurate. The second one was a lot more lukewarm than hot, but was still correct. In the third, I even mentioned Mason Barnett and he got traded as part of the Lucas Erceg deal, so that’s a big W. The fourth is TBD on the last part, but the first part was 100 percent accurate. And then the fifth one was, uh, a bit of a whiff. Not bad! So I have a lot to live up to this season. Okay, here goes nothing.
Bobby Witt Jr. Will Win MVP…In a Landslide
The fact that Witt will win the Most Valuable Player award in itself isn’t terribly hot. He finished second last year behind a historic season from Aaron Judge. In most years, he would have been the MVP. I think the fact that he wins it in a landslide is something that I think is what makes it a bit of a hot take. There is just so much talent in the American League that it’s hard to think of anyone running away with the award. Of course, Judge did it just last season.
It doesn’t take long to start narrowing down the rarity of what Witt did last season. He hit .332 with a .256 ISO. There have only been 73 individual seasons that included a .330 average and a .250 ISO since the Royals came into existence. That’s 73 individual seasons out of 7,802. Just two stats and we’re already down to one percent of all qualified batting years. How many rated positively defensively by Fangraphs Def rating? That would be 19. Witt’s season, by the way, was the second highest rating in this time period among players with a .330 average and .250 ISO. Add in 30 stolen bases and we’re down to four players. Four out of 7,802. That is 0.05 percent of all qualified hitters since 1969.