KANSAS CITY, Mo.—Major League Baseball announced today that Bobby Witt Jr. has been named American League Player of the Week presented by Chevrolet for the period of July 15-21.

Witt Jr. began the week by finishing as the runner-up in the 2024 Home Run Derby in Arlington, Texas. He hit a derby-high 50 home runs, including 20 homers in the 1st round, then bested José Ramírez, 17-12 to advance to the finals. Witt Jr. hit 13 homers in the final round, and his last batted ball landed at the base of the wall, leaving him 1 shy of matching Teoscar Hernández, who hit 14 homers in the final round to be crowned Home Run Derby champion.

The following night, Witt Jr. made his first All-Star Game appearance, playing the last 4.0 innings at shortstop in the American League’s 5-3 win. He was the fourth Royals shortstop to be selected to the All-Star Game, following Fred Patek (1972, 1976, 1978), Kurt Stillwell (1988) and Alcides Escobar (2015).

When play resumed last weekend, Witt Jr. reached safely in 10 of 12 plate appearances in a 3-game sweep of the White Sox, going 9-for-11 (.818) with 4 runs, 1 walk, 1 double, 1 home run and 3 RBI. He recorded 3 hits in all 3 games, matching the 3rd-longest such streak in Royals history, trailing only George Brett, who had at least 3 hits in 6 consecutive games from May 8-13, 1976, and Johnny Damon, who had at least 3 hits in 4 straight games from July 18-21, 2000.

This marks Witt Jr.’s second career American League Player of the Week Award, following May 20-26 of this year. He is the first Royal to win the award twice in the same season since Kendrys Morales in 2016, and he’s the fourth player this season to win Player of the Week honors multiple times in either league, following Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge and Juan Soto.

Witt Jr.’s father, Bobby Witt Sr., won a Player of the Week Award on July 3, 1994. According to Major League Baseball, the Witts are one of 14 father/son duos to each win at least one Player of the Week Award.