Ahead of the ALDS, Kansas City Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. said he wants to do what Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs have done.
In Kansas City, the Chiefs are the big dog in town — and for good reason. With Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid at the helm, the Chiefs have won three Super Bowls in the last five years and have a chance to become the first team to ever three-peat in the NFL. So it's no surprise that Royals superstar Bobby Witt Jr. is trying to replicate that same success in MLB.
While not quite the household name Mahomes is, Witt is one of the very best baseball players on the planet. If not for Aaron Judge's historic season, the Royals shortstop would almost certainly be earning his first AL MVP soon as a reward for a year in which he averaged an MLB-best .332 batting average, as well as 32 home runs, 109 RBIs, 31 stolen bases, and an OPS of .977.
Witt has the Royals back in the playoffs for the first time since the team won it all in 2015, but he has bigger ambitions than just making it to October.
“Seeing what they're doing across the street with the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes, I'm just trying to do my part and bring back what Kansas City needs and what they love,” Witt said, via ESPN's Jeff Passan. “You see it with the Chiefs, and you saw it with what the Royals did in '14, '15. We want to create our own legacy.”
It will be tough to forge a legacy as solid as Chiefs, and it will be especially difficult for the Royals this year. To even get to the ALCS, Kansas City will have to get by the aforementioned Judge, Juan Soto, Gerrit Cole, and the New York Yankees in the ALDS.
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The Yankees finished the regular season with an AL-best 94-68 record, eight wins better than the Royals, and feature a few of the very best players in MLB. Judge, for one, dominated pitchers this season — he led the majors in home runs (58), RBIs (144), walks (133), on-base percentage (.458), slugging percentage (.701), and OPS (1.159).
To make things even more challenging, the Royals will have to pitch to sluggers like Soto and Giancarlo Stanton, who combined for 68 home runs and 181 RBIs this season. And then when the Royals are at the plate, they will face Cole, the Yankees' ace, in Game 1 before Carlos Rodon takes the mound in Game 2. Either Luis Gil or Clarke Schmidt is expected to start Game 3, which will be the first playoff game in Kansas City since the Royals defeated the New York Mets 7-1 in Game 2 of the World Series on Oct. 28, 2015.a
