{"id":743338,"date":"2026-07-05T01:06:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T01:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/743338\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T01:06:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T01:06:42","slug":"bobby-witt-jr-named-starting-shortstop-for-all-star-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/743338\/","title":{"rendered":"Bobby Witt Jr. named starting shortstop for All-Star Game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) &#8211; The accomplishments for Bobby Witt Jr. continue to grow. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kctv5.com\/sports\/mlb\/royals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.kctv5.com\/sports\/mlb\/royals\/\">Kansas City Royals<\/a>\u2019 superstar shortstop has added one to his ledger: All-Star Game starter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">After earning All-Star reserve player status the previous two seasons, Witt was named the starting American League shortstop for the 2026 MLB Midsummer Classic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Witt leads the team in runs (44), hits (93), doubles (20), walks (37), stolen bases (29), batting average (.290) on-base percentage (.362) and on base + slugging (.832).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. hits a single that scored teammate Nick Loftin during the...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/E764U5RAG5CARCKQ5AEYLFGZ3E.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"653\" \/>Kansas City Royals&#8217; Bobby Witt Jr. hits a single that scored teammate Nick Loftin during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Saturday, May 30, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo\/LM Otero)(LM Otero | AP Photo\/LM Otero)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He is also fourth in the major leagues in wins above replacement (4.7).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Royals\u2019 top pick in the 2019 MLB Draft, Witt has been a mainstay in the lineup since his debut in 2022. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He advanced to the final two voting and beat out Toronto\u2019s Andres Gimenez to earn the start. The 26-year-old will be the third shortstop in club history to start an All-Star Game (Fred Patek &#8211; 1978, Alcides Escobar &#8211; 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 KCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) &#8211; The accomplishments for Bobby Witt Jr. continue to grow. The Kansas City Royals\u2019&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2387],"tags":[1482,5,3398,1351,5965,936,2123,55,2596,2595,29152,4,11815,252,2332,5951],"class_list":["post-743338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kansas-city-royals","tag-all-star","tag-baseball","tag-bobby-witt","tag-bobby-witt-jr","tag-breaking-news","tag-kansas","tag-kansas-city","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-kansascity","tag-kansascityroyals","tag-midsummer-classic","tag-mlb","tag-newsbreak-app","tag-royals","tag-shortstop","tag-starter"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116864692028567768","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}