Kansas City Royals draft Patrick Mahomes of their own in Bobby Witt Jr.

One MLB Draft analyst said the Kansas City Royals selection of Bobby Witt Jr. was a Patrick Mahomes of their own. The Royals can only hope that’s the case.

On Monday, the Major League Baseball first year player draft got underway and the Kansas City Royals had the second overall selection. After the first pick, catcher Adley Rutschman, went to the Baltimore Orioles, the Royals made their selection of Bobby Witt Jr., son of former ML pitcher Bobby Witt and a sensational young talent that drew comparisons—to a football player.

Jim Callis of Baseball America served as an analyst during the draft and gave the best quote of the night when he said, “[Witt] is going to be to the Royals what Patrick Mahomes is to the Chiefs … special talent, special player, special makeup, and he can do for the Royals what Patrick Mahomes has done for the Chiefs.”

That sounds great as a sound bite, to be sure, and it was great to hear the love for Mahomes during the broadcast. It’s also exciting to think about the Royals getting that sort of young player in the draft.

But let’s be honest about the MLB Draft in general, where the bust rate is well beyond anything the NFL has ever seen even in its worst classes. In addition, Mahomes plays a position that affects everyone else, whereas even the best overall player in baseball can languish on a last place team (paging Mike Trout).

Then again, who wants to think about that now? Let’s party. Even Mahomes was in on the excitement, tweeting at Witt during the night’s festivities.

Witt and Mahomes are not only exciting young talents all their own, but the fathers of both also played Major League Baseball for several years. In fact, they both pitched at the same time from 1992 to 2001.

Witt Jr. was the National High School Player of the Year and hit .500 with 15 home runs this year as a high school shortstop.