Kansas City Royals fans officially have permission to exhale.
Royals star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. got a big scare during Wednesday’s spring training game against the Seattle Mariners. In the fifth inning of the contest, Witt got hit on the left forearm by a 95-mph sinker from Mariners reliever Andres Muñoz.
Witt immediately doubled over in pain and had to be replaced in the game by Tyler Tolbert. You can see the video of the HBP here.
In the hours after the scary moment, the Royals shared a positive update on Witt’s status. They posted on social media that Witt had been diagnosed with a left forearm contusion but that X-rays were negative for a fracture.
Jeff Passan of ESPN also added that Witt is expected to avoid a “long” absence (though the timeline for Witt’s return is still unclear at this point).
The 24-year-old Witt is one of baseball’s brightest young stars right now. He is coming off a 2024 campaign where he won the MLB batting title with a .332 average and also won his first career Gold Glove, his first career Silver Slugger, made his first career All-Star appearance, and finished second in AL MVP voting to Aaron Judge. Overall on the year, Witt had 32 homers, 109 RBIs, 31 stolen bases, and 211 total hits while appearing in 161 of 162 games.
With the Royals making their first playoff appearance in nearly a decade on the strength of Witt’s heroics, few players in Major League Baseball are more indispensable to their respective teams. Kansas City is set to begin the regular season in a little over two weeks on March 27, so hopefully Witt, who is on an enormous but well-deserved contract with the Royals, will be ready to go by then.
