The New York Yankees could potentially be on the radar for one of the best young players in Major League Baseball.
Bobby Witt Jr. has been nothing short of excellent since breaking into the league with the Kansas City Royals. He signed a whopping 11-year deal worth $288.8 million prior to the start of the 2024 season.
However, that deal includes an opt-out after the 2030 season. At that point, Witt will have played three seasons making $36 million, but Colin Keane of Sports Illustrated believes he could choose to walk away from the Royals in search of more money.
“Will the Royals be interested in re-working a contract to keep Witt Jr. in-house? Of course. But a team like the Yankees will likely bring out the Brinks truck for Witt Jr., especially as New York has been starved for a superstar shortstop since the days of Derek Jeter.”
Keane is correct in that it has been a bit of a revolving door for the Yankees since Jeter retired. However, the Bronx Bombers seem to have found some consistency at shortstop with Gold Glover Anthony Volpe.
Whether Witt leaves Kansas City will simply come down to how much of a contender the team is over the next few years. If the Royals can’t build on last year’s 86-76 season, he could choose to leave.
“Witt Jr. is one of the game’s five best players and should be compensated as such,” wrote Keane. “By 2031, there’s no reason to believe that Witt Jr. won’t still be a top-five asset, barring injury, which means it will be essential for him to opt out of his current deal and re-negotiate a much larger one. … But Kansas City fans should appreciate every game that Witt Jr. plays in a Royals uniform, because there will come a time when he has suitors like the Yankees knocking down his door with offers that are impossible to refuse.”
If the Yankees were to acquire Witt, they could certainly shift things around in the infield. Witt is capable of playing third base, or they could choose to flip Volpe to second base and have a pair of Gold Glovers in the middle infield positions.
A lot can change between now and the end of the 2030 season, but it’s certainly something to watch as the next few seasons unfold.
