Live from Omaha ... Top prospects Bobby Witt Jr., Nick Pratto continue climb toward KC
The eyes of the Kansas City Royals’ fan base will quite literally and figuratively rest on the actions of Bobby Witt Jr. and Nick Pratto until they make their major-league debuts. That’s simply a fact of life for top prospects with gaudy statistics who are one step away from the bigs.
The attention only intensifies when the major-league club endures the type of on-field struggles that the Royals have experienced this season, with injuries, under-performance and growing pains yielding a record 18 games below .500 and last place in the AL Central.
Yet somehow, arguably the most highly touted prospects to come through the Royals’ farm system since Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer have managed to keep the hopes and expectations for the future from becoming burdensome pressure.
At least so far.
“I try to just tune that out and focus on the task at hand and the team that I’m with, try to bring my energy and try to win each and every day,” Witt said of calls for him to be in the majors. “There’s that stuff, but I just can’t really look at it all.”
The duo played their first game as Omaha Storm Chasers at Werner Park on Tuesday in front of an announced 5,005 spectators, including several summers camps, a few dedicated fans who made the early morning drive north from the Kansas City area, and the typical local fans who came out to enjoy baseball in a beautiful minor-league setting.
There were nice rounds of applause from the home crowd and anxious murmurs of anticipation to see what Witt and Pratto could do in their first at-bats at Triple-A, but both prospects seemed to approach the day like any game, another opportunity to try to win alongside teammates with whom they’d bonded during spring training and at the club’s alternate site last year.
Witt, 21, and Pratto, 22, have also benefited from the comfort factor of taking this journey together. The roommates and teammates who batted back-to-back in the Storm Chasers’ lineup Tuesday have nearly morphed into one entity — as if “Bobby and Nick,” or “Junior and Pratto,” or “Witt Jr. and Pratto” were the names of baseball firms in which all Royals followers have invested heavily.
After being quarantined together at the alternate training site, spending a spring together, then making their Double-A debuts together, they also played in this year’s All-Star Futures together ahead of the MLB All-Star Game.
Witt described Pratto as “like an older brother I never had.”
“The friendship we’ve built is something I’m really thankful for, and to have that in a teammate and someone I come to work everyday with is really special,” Pratto said. “We’re joining up with a bunch that we’ve played with in the past and a bunch of really talented guys that we’ve played with in the past.”
Pratto added that the two “feed off each other.”
In their first taste of Triple-A competition, Witt went 2 for 6 with a run scored, while Pratto 1 for 3 with a run scored and two walks.
If Witt felt any butterflies in his first at-bat Tuesday, he hid them extremely well. Facing Minnesota Twins minor-league right-hander Chandler Shepherd, he fouled off five pitches in a nine-pitch battle before lining a single into center field to the delight of the home crowd.
Pratto, who has garnered significant praise for his plate discipline and approach in the batter’s box, stepped in for his first at-bat and stayed true to form as he patiently worked a 3-0 count. After Shepherd threw him a strike on 3-0, Pratto took a hack at a pitch to his liking and fouled it off. He drew a walk on the next pitch.
While Tuesday marked only the first game of their penultimate stop en route to the majors, both Witt and Pratto flashed some of the traits that have made their arrivals in Kansas City highly anticipated, and inevitable.
Witt showed off the bat speed and bat-to-ball skills that have made him the No. 8 prospect in the game, as ranked by Baseball America. He legged out an infield single for his second hit of the game.
Pratto, who singled in the seventh, showed his advanced approach at the plate and also flashed some leather in the field, making a diving stop and nice lead throw to the pitcher covering first. Pratto also worked a walk on a 3-2 count in the ninth inning of a tie game.
The two were off to such torrid starts at Double-A this season that it’s easy to forget neither had played in regular-season games since 2019. They were also both making the jump to Double-A for the first time.
“It has been great just getting the opportunity to play my first full year and just be around all the guys that I’ve been around, especially Nick,” Witt said of his year so far. “It has been amazing just to kind of get my feet wet and get going. It has been a lot of learning this year, through ups and downs.”
They’ve handled it all pretty deftly, and they’ve kept a refreshing perspective. Now all they have to do is play and not let the change in uniform or proximity to the majors weigh on them.
After all, they’re still just a pair of 20-somethings playing a game.
“Our time will come when it comes, and that’s out of our hands,” Pratto said. “But the focus is right here, right now: How can we win this game?”
This story was originally published July 20, 2021 at 3:15 PM with the headline "Live from Omaha ... Top prospects Bobby Witt Jr., Nick Pratto continue climb toward KC."
