Injuries again plagued Bryant in the third year of his ill-fated contract
Welcome to the 2024 edition of Ranking the Rockies, where we take a look back at every player to log playing time for the Rockies in 2024. The purpose of this list is to provide a snapshot of the player in context. The “Ranking” is an organizing principle that’s drawn from Baseball Reference’s WAR (rWAR). It’s not something the staff debated. We’ll begin with the player with the lowest rWAR and end up with the player with the highest.
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No. 46, Kris Bryant, -0.7 rWAR
One of the most important questions for the Colorado Rockies as they prepare for 2025 is this: What are they going to do about Kris Bryant?
The writing has been on the wall for some time that Bryant is nowhere close to the player the team hoped for when they signed him to a seven-year, $182 million contract in 2022. Injuries have plagued the former MVP over his three seasons in Colorado, with 2024 limiting him to just 37 games.
In his three seasons with the club, Bryant has played a total of 159 games, not even a single season’s worth.
2024 recap
The numbers are self-explanatory. In 155 plate appearances this season, Bryant slashed .218/.323/.301 with five doubles, two home runs, 15 RBI, 38 strikeouts and 13 walks. His .623 OPS and 71 OPS+ were both career lows as was his 70 wRC+. During his Rockies tenure, Bryant has slashed .250/.332/.381 with just 17 home runs and an 89 OPS+.
There is no doubt that Bryant seems to be a shell of his former self as age and injury have robbed the player of the elite skill that made him a hero in Chicago.
Bryant began the year destined to be the primary first baseman for the Rockies while also playing in right field as needed with an occasional stint as the designated hitter. He rotated through these three spots to accommodate playing time for players like Elehuris Montero and Michael Toglia to start the year.
Although he got off to a slow start, you could start to see inklings of Bryant feeling more comfortable at the plate in April, like he had in spring training. While playing in Toronto, Bryant knocked a couple of doubles and was looking to turn a new leaf.
Then, he crashed into the wall making a catch in right field.
The play, while impressive, was costly as it resulted in a lower-back strain that placed Bryant on the shelf until May 21. He returned from the injured list and looked better in some aspects, drawing seven walks against 13 strikeouts. His vision at the plate was improved and again, he was looking to turn a new leaf.
Then, he crashed into another wall while making a catch in foul territory in Los Angeles.
The play, while also impressive, was costly as it resulted in an oblique strain/rib contusion that placed Bryant on the shelf until July 23.
Again, he returned from the injured list and started to find some rhythm. In 13 games he slashed .277/.352/.340 with three doubles and five RBI but drew only two walks against 17 strikeouts before he was once against sidelined by a back strain on August 11, effectively ending his season.
Back issues
From a numbers and play perspective, there were chances for Bryant to start contributing, but his body wasn’t on the same page, mainly due to a chronic issue that Bryant revealed he had learned about in May.
“I guess it’s hard to speak on because I’m not a doctor, but the discs in my back are pretty much dried up, so there’s a couple of discs that … they don’t function like they did 10 years ago,” Bryant said. “My facet joints are a little — not a little — they are pretty severely arthritic, and (there are) a lot of bone spurs and stuff like that. It’s just part of getting older. That’s the way the doctor explained it to me. So I just have to find a way to manage it as best I can.”
Bryant visited a noted spine surgeon, Robert G. Watkins IV, to learn more about his issues and potential treatment. He learned that “there basically is no disk between [vertebrae] L4 and L5, just bone rubbing on them. And then I have severe arthritis in my facet joint.”
Bryant could decide to undergo ablation to scar the nerve and reduce pain, but it could also risk damaging the nerve. So, Bryant and the Rockies are targeting a new workout plan with the hopes of strengthening and maintaining his body. The team will stay in close communication through the offseason to make sure he is keeping up with his rigorous training agenda, working on things like strengthening his core to relieve stress on his back.
But there are still plenty of unknown variables for the 33-year-old, leaving his potential contributions a mystery and increasing the difficulty of projecting the Rockies 2025 roster.
Media man
Perhaps the biggest gripe fans have had with Bryant, beyond his lack availability and production on the field, has been the interviews and quotes that have surfaced.
Back in spring training, Bryant talked with Sam Blum of The Athletic about his decision to sign with Colorado and his time in the spotlight in Chicago. Some of the quotes were misinterpreted, such as him saying he “didn’t look into the prospects as much as I should have,” with many believing he was talking about the actual prospects in the Rockies organizations as opposed to the other suitors in free agency.
I tried to make sense of those comments in an effort to understand better where Bryant was coming from. As a fundamentally private guy, Bryant didn’t enjoy the pressures that came with the Cubs’ second-overall pick as well as the spotlight of playing on Chicago team desperate to win. When the time came for free agency, he settled on Colorado to escape the national spotlight while also getting a big payday — both understandable reasons.
Throughout the year, however, while Bryant has been sidelined he’s become a ghost with the Rockies. He’d occasionally suit up with the team in the dugout during home games, but his contributions largely consisted of telling fans through interviews how sad he was about not playing.
“I am trying to convey to you, and the fans, how awful I feel about this,” he said to Patrick Saunders before the final series of the year.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat it, it’s been terrible,” he said. “It’s been terrible on me, physically and emotionally. I feel like I’ve let a ton of people down.
“There is nobody who feels worse about this than me. There are a lot of nights when I’m upset, I’m depressed. I want to be out there with the guys. It sucks. I want to be on road trips, I want to play.”
It’s understandable how difficult the injuries have been for Bryant after being so used to success in his baseball career.
That information has fallen on the deaf ears of Colorado fans. He has not done enough in Denver to warrant much sympathy from a frustrated fanbase.
What’s next?
As it stands, the Rockies appear committed to Bryant being part of their lineup in 2025.
With Blackmon retired, Bryant has the perfect opportunity to slot in as the primary DH. They may still try to slot him in at first base and right field, but for the sake of his health it’s best to keep him off the field as much as possible. Unfortunately, that raises the problem of his bat becoming unproductive, making him more of a liability than the aircraft carrier they believed him to be.
The alternative route is for the Rockies to swallow their pride and cut Bryant, eating the nearly $100 million left on his contract for the next four years. It would be a tough pill to swallow, but with younger and healthier players fighting for playing time, that may be a conversation that needs to be had at some point if he doesn’t find a way to stay healthy and start contributing.
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