"Like Mike Trout, 8 years ago" – Mets HOFer sees great potential in Bobby Witt Jr. after impressive season with Royals

In the world of strong hitters like Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, Kansas City Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. is making a name for himself with impressive performance this season that nudged him to be named among the three finalists for the AL MVP award alongside Judge and Juan Soto.

During Tuesday's "MLB Network" show, New York Mets Hall of Famer Ron Darling gave a high ceiling to Witt Jr. even comparing him to prime Mike Trout. Darling hailed him as the best all-around player in the league.

"I don't know if he has a ceiling," Darling said. "I think we're speaking about him right now and he hasn't even gotten to that point where there's no chase in his game, where he is not jumping at the ball. He still has a lot of room to grow.

"We're gonna talk about him like we talked about Mike Trout eight years ago. The best all-around player in our game," he added.

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Bobby Witt Jr. to give Aaron Judge a strong fight for AL MVP title

With a .332 batting average, Witt Jr. won the AL batting title and should be giving a strong fight to Aaron Judge for the coveted award. While Yankees' Juan Soto is also in contention, analysts believe the first-place votes will be distributed between the Yankees captain and the Royals' shortstop.

While Judge wins the AL MVP as per odds, Witt Jr. has made sure it may not be unanimous after putting his second straight 30-30 season on top of the batting title.

Witt is still 24, but the Texas native seems to be the most complete player in modern baseball. His shortstop play mesmerizes fans game after game and his base running sets him aside in a league of his own.

Since debuting in the majors, Bobby Witt Jr. has been among the stolen bases leaders. His rookie season saw him steal 30 bases, followed by 49 SBs in his sophomore year. This season, he stole 31 bases. In terms of power and slugging, Witt's home run production increased gradually: 20 HRs in 2022, 30 in 2023 and 32 in 2024.

This year, he boasted an impressive hitting slash line of .332/.389/.588, an impressive uptick as compared to .276/.319/.495 in 2023.

All this contributes to the fact that Bobby Witt Jr. is getting high regard in terms of his ceiling and gradual improvement in all facets of the game.