{"id":714669,"date":"2026-06-20T02:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T02:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/714669\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T02:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T02:07:12","slug":"bobby-witt-jr-out-of-lineup-with-mcl-sprain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/714669\/","title":{"rendered":"Bobby Witt Jr. Out Of Lineup With MCL Sprain"},"content":{"rendered":"

AL MVP candidate\u00a0Bobby Witt Jr.<\/a> is dealing with a Grade 1 sprain of the medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his right knee. Witt is not available for tonight\u2019s game against the Cardinals. There\u2019s a rare Saturday off day tomorrow because Kansas City will host a World Cup match between Ecuador and Curacao in the evening.<\/p>\n

Anne Rogers of MLB.com<\/a> writes that Witt will be reevaluated before Sunday afternoon\u2019s series finale. Manager Matt Quatraro tells Rogers there\u2019s no fear the injury would require surgical repair, but an injured list stint may be necessary depending on the amount of inflammation.<\/p>\n

Witt suffered the injury while making a diving stop<\/a> on a ground-ball off the bat of Jordan Walker<\/a> last night. He wheeled and tried to throw to second for a force out but tweaked his knee. Witt stayed in through the end of the defensive inning but was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the bottom half.<\/p>\n

Kansas City is without their entire Opening Day infield for tonight\u2019s game.\u00a0Vinnie Pasquantino<\/a> suffered a hamate fracture last week and will be out beyond the All-Star Break.\u00a0Jonathan India<\/a> underwent season-ending shoulder surgery in April. Witt and\u00a0Maikel Garcia<\/a> are both day to day, with the latter out since Tuesday due to a muscle strain in his left hand.<\/p>\n

Jac Caglianone<\/a> and\u00a0Michael Massey<\/a> are the regular duo on the right side of the infield. The day-to-day injuries on the left side draw\u00a0Nick Loftin<\/a> and\u00a0Tyler Tolbert<\/a> into tonight\u2019s lineup at third base and shortstop, respectively.\u00a0Isaac Collins<\/a> can move into the infield on an emergency basis, but it\u2019s certainly not ideal to only have\u00a0Starling Marte<\/a> and Kameron Misner<\/a> available off the bench.<\/p>\n

Injured list stints can be retroactive by a maximum of three days, so the Royals might make a decision on Garcia during the off day. They may wait until Monday to make that call on Witt, as they could backdate that placement to today.<\/p>\n

Kansas City already has an uphill battle to pulling back into the Wild Card picture. They\u2019re 14 games under .500 and fourth from the bottom in the American League. The Royals got\u00a0Seth Lugo<\/a> back from a brief stay on the concussion list tonight but are still down two of their top starters in\u00a0Cole Ragans<\/a> and\u00a0Kris Bubic<\/a>. They\u2019ve been a slightly below-average offense despite Witt turning in a .294\/.368\/.465 line with 10 homers and MLB-high 28 stolen bases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AL MVP candidate\u00a0Bobby Witt Jr. is dealing with a Grade 1 sprain of the medial collateral ligament (MCL)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[12949,12945,99],"class_list":["post-714669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-bobby-witt-jr","tag-maikel-garcia","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}