70
How much contact does Bobby Witt Jr. need to make to be a star? Even with a raucous 2021 spring performance on his ledger, there are reasonable concerns among pro scouts who saw him about how often he’s going to swing and miss. None of this is new. Witt swung and missed a lot during his showcase summer but his subsequent fall and spring were strong enough to make him the second overall pick of the 2019 draft class, and he’s the type of talent who’d be a threat to go first in most drafts.
His skillset compares quite closely to Trevor Story‘s. There are going to be some strikeouts here because Witt’s swing path makes it hard for him to get to pitches down and in, but his combination of defensive fit and game power make him a likely impact player anyway. He’s is a big, athletic young guy who moves so well that he makes the field look small when he’s running the bases or ranging for a grounder, and he is very likely to not only stay at shortstop but be quite good there. He also has a swing geared for pullside lift (he can bend at the waist to go down and yank balls away from him, too) and the power to hit balls out even when he swings a little flat-footed. He is the son of a former big leaguer and carries himself like one, which has endeared him to scouts and coaches during the course of a high-profile career laden with very high expectations, which Witt has always met and often exceeded. His 2019 pro debut statline lacked power on the surface, but the batted ball data from that year and this spring suggests we shouldn’t worry about that.