The Rockies are placing Kris Bryant on the 10-day injured list, the team informed reporters (including Nick Groke of the Athletic). Bryant has been dogged by back soreness of late, although Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post tweets that an MRI didn’t reveal any serious issues. That suggests it could be a fairly brief IL stay. To take Bryant’s place on the roster, corner infield prospect Elehuris Montero is being recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque.
Bryant hasn’t played since Monday. His IL placement can thus be backdated to April 26; assuming that’s the case, he’d be eligible to return a week from now. Bryant has gotten off to something of a slow start to his Colorado tenure. Signed to a seven-year, $182MM deal over the offseason, he hasn’t connected on a home run through his first 15 games. Bryant owns a .281/.338/.351 line over 65 plate appearances while splitting his time between left field and designated hitter.
The Rox have turned to Connor Joe and Sam Hilliard in left over the past couple days. Joe is off to an excellent .270/.349/.514 start and is an option in the corner outfield, at first base or at DH. Hilliard could see a few more at-bats while Bryant is out, although it’s possible the Rockies use this as an opportunity to give Montero his first run.
Acquired as part of the return from the Cardinals for Nolan Arenado, Montero split the 2021 campaign between Double-A Hartford and Albuquerque. He performed well at both stops, combining for a .278/.360/.529 showing in 500 plate appearances. Montero, whom St. Louis had already selected onto their 40-man roster over the 2019-20 offseason, didn’t get a big league call. He did, however, improve his stock in the eyes of prospect evaluators.
This past winter, both FanGraphs and Baseball America slotted the 23-year-old among the ten most promising prospects in the organization. Both outlets praised his combination of bat-to-ball skills and power, although each raised questions about his defensive acumen at third base and an aggressive approach at the plate. Nevertheless, both outlets suggested he could have enough offensive upside to be an everyday player.
Montero has gotten off to a fine .288/.356/.450 start over 91 Triple-A plate appearances. The Rockies can option him back to the minors, but it stands to reason they’ll want to get a lengthy look at him against big league arms at some point soon. Montero is in his final option year, meaning Colorado will have to carry him on next season’s Opening Day roster if they don’t want to lose him to another club.
As the world turns
He’s worth every penny!
Lol that was quick!
182 million buys an awful lot of Doan’s pills. Get back on the field.
Doans, huh? You have to be in your 50’s!
Not quite. Just 45.
What’s the IL rules that start Tuesday? 10 for position, 15 for pitchers? 20 for cheerleaders?
Probably been hanging out with Ben Simmons
As a Philly fan, don’t drop Bryant to THAT level…
Remember like a week ago when Rockies fans were suggesting that their team is actually good based on an incredibly small sample size? They’ve lost all their games since then. This happens every year – an objectively bad team gets off to a 6-2 start and some fans think they’re contenders.
The team is good. Better than expected by most anyway. Just had an incredibly bad series. But they ain’t playing Philly anymore this year.
They suck in that series
Yep, but one series doesn’t make a season. They took 2 of 3 from LA, 2 of 3 from Detroit on the road, split a 4 game series with Chicago, and took 2 of 3 from Philly at home before having a bad week. Taking the first two from a bad Cincy team seems to be getting them back on track.
that was a bad series, but as a Phillies fan I think it was a bit fluky. they have one of their best rotations ever and a nice hitting core.
They’ll defend every stupid decision the rockies make, no matter the required level of mental gymnastics
Wow!!! Overpaid, under performing , and injured!
The important thing to remember is that nobody could have seen this coming…and by nobody I mean EVERYBODY!
There was a return for Arenado outside of the half-pack of year-old Marlboros?
Bryant was hitting .359 ten games into the season, and then hit .111 the next five games and then missed three straight. The back is bothering him. No reason to rush him back and turn it into something chronic.
The back AND his diminished skills are hurting him.
Hey, he does play in Colorado. Maybe he could use a little “chronic”.
Cub fan here. Good luck keeping him on the field. That guy invents reasons not to play.
Does that stop the clock on service time ? Since he and boras felt cubs screwed him will he not take salary while injured ?
Now the question of taking him over Arenado will never be answered…
No surprise, Bryant’ injured. Also no big shock that Bryant, to this point hasn’t put up power numbers. I wish a few years back that know it all Theo Epstein and Co would have left Bryant and his then productive power swing alone. Bryant then was great, until Epstein kept having coaches have Bryant take more pitches and hit to all fields.
And people were saying “The Giants are foolish to not extend Kris Bryant!! WTF!!!!”….
There was nothing to extend. Boras figured he could sucker a team to pay Bryant like he was a star. He ended up getting 7@ 26m per season. A large overpay. Farhan knew better as did any other team not located in Colorado. Bryant isn’t a cornerstone, but he’s getting paid like one.
Saw a lot of Kris’s play in Chicago. Several things. In the OF in Chicago is where he developed most of his physical problems but that should have been obvious to anyone reviewing his career. Inexplicably, Maddon started platooning him in the OF, out of the blue, from his natural 3B position. The puppet-master. Anyway, not only is he not a true OF’er, he’s more likely to get hurt out there. Yes, he’s “versatile.”
Not fair to say it but in the past, when he went into big slumps, he came up with injuries during those. Chicken and egg I suppose but Kris may just have a fragile physicality. And at some point several years ago, he morphed into a singles/doubles hitters with fewer RBI’s. Slightly higher average though. Good base runner. He could be a nice piece on a team but not for that money. Easy for me to say but were I him, I wouldn’t want the pressure of that kind of contract/role hanging over me.
Injuries and stuff happens to all players during the long season. But Bryant has been habitually plagued by these little nagging injuries the past 3 years or so. Back, shoulder , wrist, quad, hammy. They seem to all build up upon one another as his season progresses. As a Chicago sports fan I know all about it.
I agree since I also followed him as a Cub fan. He is fragile. Little nagging injuries that always pop up but he never wants to go on the IL bc it doesn’t look good. He missed lots of games with the Cubs while not on IL. Definitely not a cornerstone type of player but Boras found a sucker.
I like Bryant, but this and his history proves he is another star made of glass. Very disappointing.