Kansas City Royals
KANSAS CITY, Mo.—The Kansas City Royals announced today that infielder Bobby Witt Jr. and left-handed pitcher Kris Bubic have been named Royals Player and Pitcher of the Month, respectively, for March/April. The awards are determined by a local media vote.
Through the first month of the season, Witt Jr. landed among American League leaders in several categories, including stolen bases (3rd, 9), hits (T-4th, 38), extra-base hits (T-7th, 14) and batting average (T-9th, .322), while he led the Majors with 12 doubles. He entered the month of May with an active career-high 21-game hitting streak, which he extended to 22 games with his 3rd home run of the season yesterday at Tampa Bay. It’s the longest streak in the Majors this season and the longest by a Royal since Whit Merrifield hit safely in a club-record 31 straight games from Sept. 10, 2018-April 10, 2019. Witt Jr. is one of only three players in Royals history with two hit streaks of at least 15 games before turning 25 years old, joining David DeJesus (2 in 2004) and Gregg Jefferies (2 in 1992). Over the course of his active 22-game streak since April 8, he’s batting .363 (29-for-80), which is tied for the 2nd-highest mark in the AL in that stretch, trailing only Aaron Judge (.481). Witt Jr. also reached 1,000 total bases on Wednesday at Tampa Bay in his 500th career game, becoming the fastest Royal to reach the 1,000-total bases milestone, shattering Carlos Beltran’s previous record of 536 games. This unanimous selection marks his ninth career monthly honor, which are already the 4th most by a Royals position player since the award was established in 1995, behind only Alex Gordon (13), Mike Sweeney (13) and Eric Hosmer (11). Dating back to July 2024, he’s won the honor in four consecutive months.
Bubic led all Royals starters with a 2.25 ERA (9 ER in 36.0 IP) over 6 starts to open the season, while recording 37 strikeouts (24.7 K%, 9.3 K/9). Among the 51 American League pitchers who made at least 6 starts in March/April, his 2.25 ERA ranked 7th, trailing leader Tyler Mahle (1.14 ERA). Bubic recorded 4 quality starts, which tied for the 7th most in the Majors over the last month, and tied for the 3rd most in the AL, behind only Houston’s Hunter Brown (6) and Texas’ Nathan Eovaldi (5). Bubic pitched at least 6.0 innings with no earned runs allowed in 3 of his 6 starts, including March 31 at Milwaukee (6.0 IP), April 6 vs. Baltimore (6.2 IP, 1 UER) and April 22 vs. Colorado (7.0 IP). Over his 1st 5 starts of 2025, he pitched to a 1.45 ERA (5 ER in 31.0 IP), becoming one of only eight Royals pitchers (9 instances) to pitch at least 30.0 innings and allow 5 earned runs or fewer over his 1st 5 appearances of a season, and the first since Danny Duffy turned the trick in 2021. Bubic also began the season with 15.2 innings without allowing an earned run, which was the 6th-longest such streak by a starting pitcher in Royals history, according to Elias. This marks his second career monthly honor and first since September/October 2021, when he pitched to a 2.20 ERA (8 ER in 32.2 IP) in 6 outings (5 starts).