Bobby Witt Jr.’s third consecutive First Team All-MLB selection arrived Wednesday night with a number that explains the honor better than his home-run total does: 24 Outs Above Average at shortstop.
That was the best mark among major-league shortstops in 2026 and third among all fielders. For the Colleyville-born Kansas City Royals star, the award recognized a season in which his glove provided the foundation, his legs added another dimension and his offense remained productive even without a towering home-run count.
The 24 OAA figure is a model estimate rather than a literal count of outs created by one player. It still points to the central feature of Witt’s season. The estimate credits Witt with defensive value that a batting-line snapshot cannot capture. It does not require imagining a particular spectacular play to explain why that value matters.
His conventional fielding numbers support the broader picture without telling the whole story. Witt started 140 games at shortstop, made 326 assists, participated in 75 double plays and finished with a .981 fielding percentage. He also committed 10 errors, six of them throwing errors.
This was not spotless defense. A fielding percentage can record those errors without capturing every play a shortstop reaches. That is why the broader defensive estimates deserve a place beside it.
Another estimate placed Witt’s defensive contribution at plus-17 fielding runs, level with Masyn Winn’s figure at shortstop. FanGraphs credited him with 7.0 WAR, the highest total in the American League and second in the majors behind Pete Crow-Armstrong’s 10.6.
Those figures are not identical measurements, but they converge on the same point: Witt’s value was spread across the field rather than concentrated in one offensive category.
The 18 home runs remain the obvious objection. For a player whose speed and power have made him one of baseball’s most imposing young stars, 18 is a relatively modest total. He also appeared in 143 games, a career low, after a July injured-list stint for lower-back tightness. Fewer games meant fewer opportunities, and an 18-homer total can draw attention away from his other contributions.
But the rest of the offensive line resisted that shorthand. Witt hit .281 with a .359 on-base percentage, 33 doubles, 94 runs and 45 stolen bases. He drew 67 walks, an improvement of 18 from his 2025 total and the largest walk total of his career.
His batting average was lower than it had been the year before, yet his on-base percentage still moved upward from .351.
That combination changed how he could affect an inning. A walk or single put him on base; his speed then forced the defense to account for another threat. The 45 steals were not automatic runs, and they did not replace the value of a 30-home-run season.
