KC Royals: Top 5 Royals moments from June 2019

Before the KC Royals played their June 12th game, they made a high school senior rich and secured an important player for the future when Bobby Witt Jr. signed with the club.

A day before Kansas City rookie Nicky Lopez hit his first big league home run, and just hours before the then-last place Royals would lose a home game to Detroit, the club held a news conference at Kauffman Stadium.

The June 12 news was big: the Royals had signed Bobby Witt Jr., their top 2019 draft choice and second overall pick of the draft, to a $7.789 million deal, the second largest signing bonus in big league history and the largest such bonus for the Royals.

That the Royals would choose Witt with their first pick was widely anticipated and probably a foregone conclusion. The supremely talented son of long-time major-leaguer Bobby Witt Sr., he was sure to be taken by someone high in the draft pecking order; even if the high school senior chose to delay his pro career and follow through with the letter of intent he’d signed with Oklahoma, chances were slim and none that he’d still be available to KC when he finished his collegiate career.

Witt projects as a shortstop (something will have to give if Adalberto Mondesi is still at short for KC when Witt arrives there) and appears well-equipped fundamentally for a long and successful career. He made his professional debut less than three weeks after signing; playing for the Royals’ Arizona Rookie team, he went 3-6, scored two runs and drove in another. He finished his 37 Arizona games with a .262/.317/.354 slash, 27 RBI’s, .670 OPS, nine stolen bases and eight extra base hits (including a home run) among his 43 total hits.

Although Witt’s signing had no impact on any June Royals’ game, the magnitude of his KC deal and the promise it holds for the future made the signing one of the biggest moments of the month for the KC Royals.