Witt’s superb July leads to Royals Player of the Month honors

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A superb July from Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. led the 23-year-old to Royals Player of the Month honors, the club announced Wednesday.

Witt Jr. batted .327 in 24 games, marking the highest batting average for a Royal in the month of July since Alex Gordon accomplished the same feat in July 2019. His average ranked 8th-best in the American League for the month, and his .633 slugging percentage ranked 6th-best in MLB.

His 15 extra-base hits matched Kyle Tucker, Nolan Arenado, Freddie Freeman and Christian Yelich for the Major League lead in the month. Witt Jr. recorded multiple hits in 10 of the Royals’ 24 games in the month.

READ MORE: Why Bobby Witt Jr.’s walk-off grand slam was historic

On Friday night, Witt Jr. went 4-for-5 with 6 RBI, including a game-winning, walk-off grand slam, to help Kansas City defeat the Minnesota Twins, 8-5.

Witt Jr. took home the Player of the Month honors for the Royals for the second consecutive month, and the third time of his career. He’s the first Royals position player to win at least three awards within his first two seasons to begin his career since Gordon did so three times from 2007-08.

The club announced that left-handed pitcher Ryan Yarbrough was named Pitcher of the Month for July, after tallying a 2.19 earned run average. It was the first time he’d earned a monthly honor in his Royals career, and Yarbrough was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers at Tuesday’s trade deadline in exchange for infielder Devin Mann and outfielder Derlin Figueroa.