On the day Bobby Witt Jr. was named the Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year, he received some less exciting award news.
The Golden Spikes Award finalists were announced Wednesday afternoon and Witt was excluded.
It wasn’t necessarily unexpected; Witt was the first-ever high school player to be named a semifinalist, which would make advancing further seem even more difficult.
But with the announcement, his race for being the top amateur athlete in the nation has come to a close.
The four finalists are JJ Bleday (Vanderbilt), Adley Rutschman (Oregon State), Noah Song (Navy) and Andrew Vaughn (California).
While Witt is not in the top-four amateur athletes in the country, he is undoubtedly among the best high school baseball players this season.
As of May 25, Witt was slashed .519/.579/1.117 with 14 home runs, 49 RBI, 15 doubles, eight triples and 17 steals, according to Gatorade. He also had nine appearances on the mound, posting a 1.62 ERA and striking out 18 in 8.2 innings.
The shortstop for Colleyville Heritage (Texas) is ranked by Perfect Game as the No. 1 player in the country.
Witt is a likely top five pick in the MLB Draft beginning June 3, with several mock drafts predicting him to go No. 2 overall.
