KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When the Royals signed Bobby Witt Jr. to an 11-year contract worth nearly $300 million in February, the superstar shortstop noted that a “pretty fired up” team investor had texted him to say that he “can’t wait to see what you do for this city and what’s to come.”

Never mind that said investor, Patrick Mahomes, was in Las Vegas preparing for Super Bowl LVIII.

The superstar quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs has been following and extending himself to Witt since the day in 2019 that Witt was selected second overall by the Royals in the Major League Baseball Draft.

“Let’s get it! @BwittJr @Royals,” Mahomes posted on X (then known as Twitter).

The encouragement was rooted in some obvious common ground, including their Texas roots, the fact that each of their fathers had long MLB careers and Mahomes’ passion for the Royals — among Kansas City sports in general. He and his wife, Brittany, are co-owners of the KC Current of the NWSL, and Mahomes also is an investor in Sporting KC.

As recently as February, a seemingly still-wowed Witt shared a story about showing his fiancee a text from Mahomes, whom he considers a role model. And a friendship has blossomed between the two ever since.

So much so that Mahomes on Wednesday said he’s been regularly in touch with Witt during the 2024 major league season — in which Witt won the American League batting championship and led the Royals to their first postseason since 2015.

After sweeping the Orioles in an AL wild-card series, the Royals will open an American League Division Series against the Yankees on Saturday in New York.

“I’ve texted him kind of throughout the season, and we’ve talked through the slump and through the getting into the playoffs and everything like that,” Mahomes said this week.

He later added, “He’s the right guy for the team, man. He understands it and he does it the right way.”

When I asked Mahomes if he believes Witt is doing for the Royals what he has done for the Chiefs, who are seeking their fifth Super Bowl appearance of the Mahomes Era, he first offered a caveat.

Naturally, it would be harder for Witt to have such influence in baseball considering the vast difference in the number of games, the contrast in their very nature and the variables of pitching.

But Mahomes, who cited their similarity in “mindset” while answering a similar question a few months ago, added:

“I think the day-to-day, like coming to the building and expecting to win, is something (significantly similar),” he said. “And I think that’s something that has really transpired throughout the entire team.”

That parallel of persona is real and, yes, spectacular, as the old “Seinfeld” bit goes.

And it’s something one person in particular has a unique perspective on.

In 2021, I spoke at length about each — Mahomes and Witt — with Bobby Stroupe, who has trained Mahomes since elementary school and began working with Witt in 2019. Witt still trains in the offseason at the Stroupe-founded Athletic Performance Enhancement Center in Fort Worth.

“They’re connected now,” Stroupe said then, “and they’re going to be connected for a long time.”

I wasn’t able to immediately reconnect with Stroupe before writing this piece in advance of the Yankees series. But how he saw it then, while Witt still was a year away from his major-league debut, provided insights that reverberate to this day.

At the time, Stroupe pointed to their shared pure love for their respective games and the “incredibly positive” energy that radiates from each of them. He’d never heard either complain or even offer a negative comment, he added.

And if you’re around them as often as we are in the media, you’d have some sense of just what Stroupe means, and how that holds up and matters.

“And what I mean by that is they’re just not going to speak that into existence; they’re not going to say it,” Stroupe said. “And they honestly don’t hang around people, or even stand around people, in workouts, who are doing that.”

To the contrary: Each has a sense of his own responsibility to set the tone by trying to be the most upbeat presence and hardest worker.

“A candle doesn’t burn out by lighting other candles,” Stroupe said. “And those two guys, they get it: They understand that energy gives energy. And the only way to succeed is to connect with people.”

Furthermore, he said, their role in the “characteristic spirit of the culture around them, their ethos, is incredibly similar.”

In the case of each, that means expectations aren’t burdens. And that they don’t recognize boundaries that may encumber others.

“They’re open-minded: These two guys don’t need to have seen someone else do it to try it,” Stroupe said. “And you’ve got to have a certain type of confidence and creative space in your mental approach to do that.”

That was true even in how he was training them: to emphasize freedom of movement.

“When you have a dolphin like Bobby and Patrick, you don’t quit letting them bounce the ball,” he said. “You don’t do stuff to restrict them and show them which way they’ve got to swim. …

“They’ll show you where they are.”

At the time, Stroupe still was exercising restraint about how soon to expect Witt to emerge.

But he knew this much.

“Who knows when (it’s) going to happen? But this kid is going to bring life and energy and talent, and he’s going to bring wins to Kansas City,” Stroupe said, later adding, “He’s going to show us … Let him show us. Just like Patrick did. And let’s enjoy it.”

Witt still has a long way to go to be as transformative a force as Mahomes, of course.

But as he keeps showing us, he can also expect that Mahomes will remain one of his most ardent supporters — making for a growing connection between two of the current best in their respective games, and a certain synergy to be appreciated by KC sports fans.

©2024 The Kansas City Star. Visit kansascity.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.