Bobby Witt Jr. passes KC Royals legend in franchise history amidst MVP campaign

The KC Royals have been anything but stellar as of late, but eeking out a 1-0 victory Tuesday night is hopefully the start of something positive. This team inched closer to clinching their MLB playoffs destiny, an absurd thought considering this team lost 106 games less than one year ago. That swift turnaround is largely in part to shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.'s play.

The Texas native has launched himself into superstardom and the MVP conversation. Another historic season and East Coast location with likely land New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge the AL MVP award, but Witt's 2024 campaign has been equally impressive.

Has Bobby Witt Jr. really surpassed Salvador Perez in KC Royals history?

From his first All-Star selection to a solid Gold Glove case, the young star has Kansas City's baseball future looking bright. But an odd milestone makes him outshine one of the Royals foundational players, namely catcher Salvador Perez.

Through only 464 career games, Witt has accrued more value than Perez has in 1,547 games, according to Fangraphs. In fact, Witt's 18.4 fWAR ranks third most among all Royals position players since 2010, only trailing outfielders Alex Gordon and Lorenzo Cain. But Witt already passing Perez feels premature, looking back on the Venezuelan's MLB career.

There is a rational explanation for this, one that further exemplifies the debate about which WAR model is best. In baseball, there are two models analysts and fans like to use: bWAR and fWAR. fWAR denotes Fangraphs' model, while bWAR is Baseball Reference's model. Perez's fWAR amount is so low because their model includes catcher framing, a measured weak spot in Perez's career.

The current gap between Perez and Witt in bWAR is what you'd expect. Perez ranks fourth among all Royals position players, with 35.6 bWAR in his career, while Witt trails far behind at 14.6 bWAR, placing him 20th. At just 24 years old, Witt has plenty of ground to cover to catch up to the team captain—at least in Baseball Reference's eyes.

This highlights the imperfect narrative that WAR can create, but Witt surpassing Perez in this widely accepted metric is still an impressive feat. The Royals were smart to lock Witt into a long-term deal when they did, and he should continue to accumulate WAR and other accolades for years to come in Kansas City.

More from Kings of Kauffman