"He's still emerging": Royals manager Matt Quatraro labels Bobby Witt Jr. as immature shortstop

Bobby Witt Jr. had an impressive 2024 season with the Kansas City Royals. But despite helping the team qualify for the playoffs, Matt Quatraro doesn't find Witt Jr. as a complete pitcher but a developing project. Recently, Quatraro talked about Witt Jr.'s skill sets and things that need to be worked out on, that would make him a "superstar."Bobby Witt Jr. has been with the Kansas City Royals since 2019. Over the years, Witt Jr. has made massive improvements in his game. But despite that, the shortstop has yet to make a massive name for himself. According to Royals manager Matt Quatraro, there's quite a handful of things that Witt Jr. needs to work on."I think it's easily overlooked with Bobby that he's got three years in a big league, and he's 24 years old. When you step back, you can put him on a pedestal as a superstar, but he's still emerging in my mind," Quatraro said via MLB Network on Monday."I think with growth he is gonna become mature to understand what the pitcher is trying to do, not trying to force the issue, and probably taking more walks. We've seen growth from year two to year three and taking that base hit to the right when he knows they're not pitching," Quatraro further added. Moving forward in his statement, Matt Quatraro explained that Bobby Witt Jr. has got the "speed clearly". However, when it comes to understanding the pitchers and things like "breaks and jumps and pickoffs," there's still a lot of work that the shortstop needs to do. Quatraro concluded his statement by labelling Witt Jr. as a "steady figure" and a "humble" individual. Bobby Witt Jr. was drafted in the league as the 2nd overall pick of the 1st round of the 2019 MLB draft by the Kansas City Chiefs. In his rookie year, Witt Jr. signed a $7.7 Million contract with the Royals, followed by a pre-arbitration agreement of $700,000. In 2023, Witt Jr. signed another pre-arbitration deal worth $745,750.In 2024, Bobby Witt Jr. signed a massive contract of $288 Million with the Royals, which is 11 years long. The deal came with a signing bonus of $7.7 Million and $288 Million as guaranteed money. According to the deal, the shortstop has an average annual salary of $26 Million, and Witt Jr. is set to go free agent in 2038.