Bobby Witt Jr. details how Royals developed winning mentality in 2024

KANSAS CITY, MO. — This time last year, the Kansas City Royals were already looking ahead to 2024 after putting together a 56-win campaign and finishing last in the American League Central.

Flash forward to the current day, however, and the Royals are locked in an American League Division Series battle with the New York Yankees and playing their first home postseason games since winning the World Series in 2015. After going 86-76 in the regular season and knocking off the Baltimore Orioles on the road in the wild-card round, Kansas City is embracing everything that October baseball has to offer.

So how did the Royals turn things around so quickly and improve by 30 games in one year? Bobby Witt Jr. said on Wednesday it has much to do with the chemistry found on the roster.

"I think it started almost before spring training, just with the moves that we made," Witt said. "Whenever everyone came into spring training, it just felt like that team was special. Just the camaraderie that we had, you just felt it and just knew it's a special team. How we bonded so well, it started from Opening Day and here we are today."

Those moves include turning over almost the entire roster, with only seven Royals being on the Kansas City Opening Day roster in both 2023 and 2024. Among the new additions were starting pitcher Seth Lugo, who earned his first-ever All-Star appearance this season and will take the mound for Wednesday's pivotal Game 3 at Kauffman Stadium.

While new additions certainly helped boost the Royals in 2024, Witt said that he began sensing the importance of winning in the present when he and general manager J.J. Picollo sat down before the season began to hammer out Witt's massive 11-year, $288.8 million extension.

"The ultimate goal in those conversations was that we wanted to win and we wanted to do it this year," Witt recalled. "The conversations went well, and so here we are today. It's just one of those things where it's just him coming to me, asking questions about what we think and what's the next step? And the next step was just to win, because we knew how close we were last year, even though we lost 100-plus games. We just knew the team we had, and by adding a couple of key additions, that we're going to be right here where we are today."

Where the Royals are today is perhaps somewhere that few pundits saw as 2023 rolled to a close. However, it's clear that Witt and Kansas City have believed they could be playing in October long before many others outside the clubhouse felt the same.

All quotations obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.