MAY 27: Colorado doesn’t seem particularly concerned about Bryant’s absence. General manager Bill Schmidt told Jon Heyman of the New York Post the former MVP is expected back in two-to-three weeks.
MAY 25: The Rockies announced Wednesday that left fielder Kris Bryant has once again been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a lower back strain. The IL placement is retroactive to May 23. Bryant missed nearly a month after being placed on the IL with this same injury in late April. He’d only been active for two games before being scratched from Monday’s contest and will now be out until at least June 2. Right-hander Ryan Feltner is up from Triple-A Albuquerque to take Bryant’s spot on the active roster.
Clearly, this isn’t the way that either Bryant or the Rockies envisioned his seven-year, $182MM contract beginning. The former National League Rookie of the Year, National League MVP and four-time All-Star has appeared in just 17 of the Rockies’ 42 games thus far and has yet to connect on his first long ball with the Rox. He’s hitting .270/.342/.333 through his first 73 plate appearances — well above league average in the first two of those three slash stats — but the lack of power and lack of time on the field are both glaring.
There’s no indication from the team as to just how long Bryant is expected to be shelved in this latest stint. It’s worth noting, however, that when Bryant originally hit the injured list back in late April, the Rockies suggested that he could be back on the field in a couple weeks’ time. Instead, as first reported by Nick Groke of The Athletic, Bryant required a cortisone injection a couple weeks into that original IL placement and was ultimately out of action for nearly four weeks. The Rox have a daytime tilt against the Pirates coming up in just under three hours, and it stands to reason that manager Bud Black will offer more information prior to gametime.
Colorado raced out to a 10-5 start to the 2022 season, igniting some hope among the fanbase that perhaps a turnaround of the team’s woeful 2019-21 performance was at hand. They’ve gone 10-17 since that start, however, and have been in a particular funk of late (just four wins in their past 15 games). The resulting 20-22 record and their -28 run differential are both the worst marks in the National League West.
With Bryant back on the shelf into early June, the Rockies will likely to turn to a combination of Connor Joe, Yonathan Daza and Sam Hilliard to cover the workload in left field. Joe has been in the lineup regularly, often as a designated hitter, but could see some extra outfield work now. Daza and Hilliard, meanwhile, figure to see an increase in at-bats with Bryant out.
In a strict platoon deployment, the left-handed-hitting Hilliard would see the bulk of the work, but he’s hitting just .160/.255/.296 to Daza’s .350/.404/.400 thus far in 2022, so perhaps the latter will receive a larger look. Daza’s batting line is being propped up by a .384 average on balls in play that he’s unlikely to sustain, but his minuscule 9.0% strikeout rate so far certainly gives him a chance to remain productive even as that BABIP trends back toward his career levels. Notably, Daza is starting in center field today against a right-handed opponent. Joe is in left field, with Hilliard available off the bench.
As for the 25-year-old Feltner, he’ll make his fourth career start later today when he takes the mound in Pittsburgh. His first three haven’t gone particularly well — he’s surrendered a dozen runs in 11 1/3 MLB innings to date — but the 2018 fourth-rounder is out to a solid start in Triple-A this year. Through 38 1/3 innings, Feltner carries a 3.76 ERA with a 30% strikeout rate, 7.5% walk rate and 38.9% ground-ball rate. With Antonio Senzatela on the injured list — also due to a back strain — Feltner could see an increase in his opportunities in the coming weeks, particularly if he shows well in today’s spot start.
Sigh
‘
He needed a vacation.
FYI – you have the IL placement retroactive to March 23 instead of May 23.
Agh! Hello morning brain. Thank you. Fixed.
My morning brain usually lasts until at least 8:00 PM.
…or third pot of coffee
Feels like it with how he’s played.
Non playoff teams should never sign free agents for more than a year. If teams stick to my free agent rules, rebuilds wouldn’t need to happen, competitive windows would lengthen. Let some other team pay for a players decline.
@Iver- I’d have to disagree, and I’d point to the Nationals signing of Jayson Werth. The Nats were a laughingstock franchise before they inked Werth, finishing 69-93. Werth lended them some credibility, helping them almost finish .500 in 2011. Then come 2012 they finished 98-64, taking the division. Yes they also drafted Harper and Strasburg, but you also need that veteran catalyst sometimes.
To say a rebuilding club should never sign a FA to a multiyear deal is an absolute that has been proven false. The club just needs to correctly identify their window and the player that fits.
I agree that you have to identify the right player. Like the Cubs when they inked Lester. Or, going back to the Nats, how about the Max signing? That is such critical decision and if you get it wrong, yes, there is pain because it lengthens the rebuild potentially. However, nothing good comes of stagnation. Nothing good comes from absolute policies that prevent you from signing that one guy who you have identified as the one who can lend credibility to your organization. Your risk appetite has to allow for some risk ir you lose innovation. Change is needed sometimes. Having said that, I would generally stay away from long-term contracts. But again, you need to make room for exceptions.
If you only have one example ei werth and he’s not even that good of example then you’d be wrong much more then you’d right therefore the rule is perfect.
@Iverbure, another example would b the Tigers signing Pudge. It showed that the franchise was serious, added a respected player to help recruit, and increased interest in the team.
@iverbure Teams have more than results to think about. Profit is king. Ticket sales matter. Bryant certainly put a few butts in the seats in Colorado.
VonHayes the butt in seats thing has never been proven. Ain’t nobody in Colorado going to see the Rockies because Kris Bryant signed with the team. He hasn’t been and never will be a needle mover.
Yea that argument is an assumption that is by no means certain. There are ways to make a team more exciting and desirable besides overpaying a big name anyway.
This isn’t a Kris Bryant-specific issue, but it seems like every player who signs a huge contract mysteriously lands on the disabled list the very next year… strange. And in their contract year, productivity is never higher. I don’t see Judge or even Josh Bell landing on the IL this year, but watch out next year!
Before the player signs the big contract, they want to stay in the lineup so they can sign the big contract, and the club has little invested in them. The moment they sign for the big bucks, the club becomes more cautious with them. They are now a huge portion of payroll, and teams will be more protective, worried that something small will become bigger and keep their Star out of the lineup longer. The player is no longer worried about his contract being effected if he sits, so doesn’t fight to play like he did before the contract.
seems like every player who signs a huge contract mysteriously lands on the disabled list the very next year… strange.
=========================
I’m not sure it is that strange. Regardless of PED use, if I was in a contract year, I’d spend the entire off-season in a training facility, and have a nutritionist making my meals. In the regular season, I’d swear off most alcohol. I’d eat the best diet possible. I’d play every game, regardless of nagging injuries.
These GMs want to talk themselves into thinking that these guys will never age.
Even worse is that Bryant still couldn’t play a full season. Since 2018, he missed 60, 15, 26, and 18 games. And he’s already 30+ years old.
@JoeBrady, that’s because Bryant is made of glass. He’s very fragile, which is why the Cubs declined to resign him. Actually they did want him back, at a hometown discount but of course, Bryant, like everyone else, said, “Man I love but I’ma gonna chase after that green dragon ($$)” and he found the biggest sucker in MLB — the Rox.
Iverbure
“Teams wanting to remain non-playoff teams” – there I fixed it for you.
The Padres signed Machado they could not get a player like that on a one year deal.
If you want to have a more serious statement, you could say that teams which plan to keep their budget under $100 million should not sign players to more than 3-4 year deals. But look at the Guardians deal with Jose Ramirez. If the deal is team friendly enough, then sure, do it.
The problem with the Rockies is that they have made BAD long term deals. The Ian Desmond deal was one of the worst that I have ever seen. It was like paying Lindor to be your 1st baseman. Bryant also seemed like a bad deal, he has value at 3B, less at LF, DH or 1B. too many years and too much money. Even if one quarter of the season has passed without him hitting a home run, Kris Bryant is a very good player. If the Rockies had offered him five years and $100 million, I would have said that works for me. I am sure another team would have offered more. I think the Rockies have a good manager and if you look at them over the past several years, they have been just a little below average in a very tough division. But by making a few bad deals, they have made it almost impossible to go from a little below average to a playoff contender.
You didn’t fix anything. If non playoff teams don’t have a gm in place that can draft and develop players he shouldn’t be given the pen to sign muti year free agents. Teams don’t get better from signing free agents the improvements come from the pre arb players who make no money. This is why the Ivy League gms who all run teams and myself think this way. There’s one way of thinking my way and that’s how you build a sustainable winner.
Thank God the Pads didn’t end up getting him..Hate to say it, because from everything I’ve heard, he’s a good dude..but seems like damaged goods at this point..
Guess Bryant’s contract and injuries are making Zaidi look like he knew something would happen in 2022.
The fact that the Giants made zero effort to retain Bryant, a player that they just traded for who would still fill an obvious need on the roster, was pretty telling.
He played bad defense for them after the trade and other than the playoffs his bat wasn’t that great. Would much rather have called up Canario at this point honestly. Then we would still have a Pitcher in the system and we wouldn’t be running Ruf out there in left everyday.
Early contender for new worst contract ever? I can’t see anything beating Chris Davis though.
According to these crazy radio personalities here in NY, somehow they want to convince me that Lindor has the worst contract of all time.
Maybe not a good contract but no way is Lindor the worst.
yet.
At least Lindor stays on the field most of the time
Lindor isn’t even the worst contract on the Mets. I’d give that honor to McCann.
Or Cano, still technically “on the Mets”
@You Can Put It In The Books Oh yeah. That one definitely wins.
Jason Heyward just said hold my beer
I’ll go with Bauer. At least Davis played for Baltimore. Until Bauer loses his grievance, I assume LAD will end up paying all of it.
Well, when you’re suspended, you don’t get paid. So if his 2 year suspension really is upheld, they’ll pay nothing for those 2 years. They’ll just have paid for the time he was on administrative leave.
Bauer if he has never pitched for LA would still be 10x better contract than Davis. Just because someone plays doesn’t mean it has value.
Crush makes the Heyward contract look like a steal!
I would say Chris Davis and Ian Desmond are pretty close… Carl Crawford and Jacoby Ellsbury were both pretty horrendous as well.
And Theo signed both Heyward and Crawford. But when you have the money you can correct mistakes like that. Yes, Theo was great. But he also thrived because he had the payroll to overcome his mistakes. He knew it was time to leave the Cubs because Ricketts told him now we have pur chip, so it’s time to pay the ransom, so to speak. Investors who helped you have the payroll to win now want to take some profits. Theo was smart enough to identify places where he could be successful.
Reactionary MLBTR commentators are truly living up to their name today
Jason Haywood says Hi
At least KB can hit
Souza bring him in!
Can you say Bad Investment by the Rockies…meanwhile Bryant and his agent are laughing all the way to the bank
Is this the beginning of countless articles citing 7 years of pain for the Rockies?
It’s only roughly a month into the deal, and he is hitting .270. Feels a bit premature to say it was a bad investment. It’s also important to remember it was a short spring and offense has been lagging behind as a whole, and guys didn’t get the full ramp up to try to help avoid injury.
BA does not tell the story. But I agree it’s early to make proclamations about the signing. However, there is empirical data to support that KB seems to get hurt more than normal.
we regret nothin
Cubbies made a lot good moves and avoided a lot of bad ones..
At least everyone saw this coming
99.99999 percent did. Rockies front office was swindled by Boras.
Not true. The Rox have wanted KB since the draft. They finally had their opportunity to sign him, and did so.
Lower back conditions often become chronic. Hopefully not the case here.
True dat. I was more expecting Rizzo to miss time with his back. But that may still be coming. Yelich is another one that somehow went from unbelievable to underperforming with back issues year after year.
Yelich seems to be doing a little better this year but it is still SSS.
I know they test for PEDs now, but when guys suddenly have years like Yelich or Bellinger and then almost as suddenly fall fall off a cliff it makes you wonder.
The juiced ball inflated a lot of hitters stats in 17 and 19
7/$182M
Welp when you decide to sign a long term contract with the Rockies I guess you accept you’re semi-retired anyway and are only going to come into the office a couple times a week.
Remember when Mets fans were clamoring to get him signed?
Member? I member. Member Berries.
You can have him, Denver.
If you know youre not going to contend then why give out that big of contract to Bryant especially when you let Jon Gray and Story just walk and traded Arenado for peanuts. Either actually go for it or do like the As and blow it it with cheap contracts and prospects.
Especially when the player had most of his power sapped by shoulder injuries and back problems over the last few years..
Gray and Story had control over staying, not the Rockies. I don’t think it they chose to walk as much as they chose to RUN from this franchise. Arenado had to agree to the trade, so again, Rockies did not get the choice, and keeping him was not an option.
Because in their minds they probably saw a player with championship pedigree who can help move the needle towards being a contender. Bryant isn’t that guy tho.
Did Story want out?? Why didn’t they just pay him? They develop hitters but their signings are usually bad…. No one else was giving Bryant that contract
Good question. And they practically gave Arenado away in addition to absorbing salary. It’s like the Rox are trying to be bad.
Did Story want out?? Why didn’t they just pay him? They develop hitters but their signings are usually bad…. No one else was giving Bryant that contract
Made. Of. Glass.
Why is he playing for Rockies again?
Rockies being Rockies, that’s why.
@ArianaGrandSlam, they need to bring in revenue so the fans would throw $$ at something lavish. Enter Bryant. Now they’re gonna see about a 5% increase in revenue but at the end of the season, they’ll be in the red when Bryant sits out most of the season.
It’s kind of amazing.
1-They signed Arenado for too much money.
2-That left them with not enough money to sign Story.
3-Without being able to extend Story, that made Arenado whine his way out.
4-After signing him for too much, they replicated the mistake by paying too much to get rid of him.
5-Then they spent whatever savings they had on a much-inferior player.
6-And magnified that mistake by not trading Story.
So they could’ve had Arenado for $129M for 2022-2026, and instead, they have Bryant for $182M for 2022-2028. And that doesn’t include the $52M they paid to get rid of Arenado.
But the best part of this is that it was all very predictable. Had they traded Story and Arenado when they could’ve easily have landed two good prospects each, they’d have a better, and cheaper team right now.
On the bright side, Bryant won’t whine about being there. He won’t gripe and ask to be traded. Dude is vanilla. No real personality outside of being a nice guy. He got his money and that’s all he wanted, that and some peace and quiet. He’ll make the occasional passive- aggressive comment about winning once in a while to the media, but he won’t be your dugout alpha.
True story.
one month of every year he’ll go on a tear and everyone will love him again, followed by months of disappointment. it’s a cruel cycle
Every time he played OF for the Cubs, he always seemed to come up lame. A bruise here… sprain there… jammed X… etc. And the Rockies have him as a full-time OF’er. Why no one else saw this is beyond me. If the Rockies are smart, and *IF* they get him back this year, he’s probably relegated to full-time DH for the rest of his career.
Was saying for the last 3 years the Cubs should trade Bryant. Everyone thought I was crazy. Since his MVP year in 2016 (even though Nolan had better numbers), Bryant went downhill. I credit Hoyer on getting Killian and Canario. Killian is looking like a potential steal.
Kilian is averaging about 4 IP/start in AAA so my expectations are tempered. 4 IP is about 2x thru a minor league order… he won’t make it thru a MLB order enough. So I ain’t calling him a steal yet.
As for KB: I actually felt the Cubs best strategy for him going forward was to trade him, specifically in the offseason when Machado was available. The way I would have done it was sign Manny, then flip KB for pitching to all those who lost out on Machado. (Could have also done the same with Harper). But bottomline, there was a path forward that year and the Cubs didn’t take it.
Cubs are babying Killian right now. They need to allow him to get extended to see what they have.
1.31 era, 34.1 ip, 40 k’s, 1.22 whip. Numbers look good though and currently throwing for Iowa as we speak. Could possibly get a call this week with cubs having two DH’s this week.
Also Killian pitched a longer season last year due to the AFL so cubs are keeping his numbers down on purpose.
If they signed Manny first, that’s telegraphing your plans to trade KB and his value would take a hit.
Kilian is being held back a little bc Cubs new strategy is to introduce pitchers to the big leagues in the bullpen and let them settle in before starting them. See Steele & Thompson? Both will be rotation mainstays next year along with Kilian and possibly Cam Sanders. A homegrown rotation is coming.
Bryant needed to go, but the people saying he’s only been downhill since 2016 haven’t been paying attention. His 2017 was arguably better than his 2016, and his 2019 was also excellent. The only truly below average year he’s had so far was the shortened 2020. But constantly being prone to injury and spending 150% more time on the IL than your average player with the same injury definitely made him expendable.
He really stinks. I wonder if he’ll ever return to form.
This is his form. A slightly
above average offensive player taken from his best position and shoved into the outfield to be a very average fielder. He is being paid like an impact player. Farhan knows best.
Career 131 OPS+ and only one season with an OPS+ below 120 (the shortened 2020 season).. He is definitely not only “slightly” above average offensively.
Literally an all star last year, finished with an .835 OPS. I wish I stank that good
I’m not sure why posters include these lines. It is understood that Bryant is a better player than 99.9999% of the people. He does not literally “stink”. In this context, all comments should be interpreted as relative to his contract.
Kris Bryant is awful!! This guy is totally washed mentally and physically. Why would you give a guy 7 years with his injury history??? Colorado is gonna get exactly what they deserve here. What is the over/under on Kris Bryant never hitting a home run in a Rockies uniform?
Put differently, if a team had signed Kris Bryant for three years and $18 million it might have been one of the best couple signings in the whole off-season.
Being way overpaid does not mean you stink. KB is not Cano, Upton or Price. But KB is much closer offensively to Chris Taylor than he is to Harper or Machado. And with much less defensive skill or versatility than Taylor.
Still, in seven years, Bryant may make it to the top five or six of Rockies’ all-time home run leaders. That does help sell tickets.
Can there really be an over/under on a yes/no question?
Carlos Gonzalez is #5 in Rockies history with 227. I don’t foresee Bryant averaging 32 homers a year over the next 7 years. At a minimum. Because there is a chance that Blackmon or McMahon or someone else has not passed CarGo by then.
Trevor Story is in 10th with 158 right now. I don’t see Bryant averaging 23 HRs and passing him. Especially when you consider he “only” hit 160 in seven years with the Cubs at his peak.
Kris Bryant would be overpaid with a 3-year, $18 million deal. He is not that good defensively. He doesn’t even have a real position anymore. He has no power. And, He is Constantly injured. Colorado is paying a 7-year, $182 million deal for this,
Typical Rockies, “know when to hold ’em, Know when to fold ’em, Know when to walk away, And know when to run” says Kenny Rogers.
Those evil Cubs playing with his service time . Does he give back money he stole from cubs and Rockies not playing ?
His last big contract… Was he pressing, reckless in his conditioning or just doesn’t give a damn?
The Rox version of Hosmer? Or worse, their version of Pujols?
Hosmer 2022 is blowing KB away:
EH-2022
avg 0.327
ops 0.852 in pitcher’s park
war 1.5
KB-2022
avg 0.270
ops 0.676 in batter’s park
war -0.2
[And yes, Hosmer’s deal was (and is) still bad.]
get used to it Colorado fans
Long live Farhan
Now how will the Rockies contend for the NL west crown?
IMO, KB’s biggest obstacle is his mindset. As a Cub when he was struggling and/or hurt, he admitted in an interview that it was tough for him to ignore social media.
He said he got in too deep and became depressed from all the negativity about himself.
If you’re a pro athlete in this day and age you absolutely cannot delve into social media! He’s just not mentally tough enough to thrive in the spotlight so when he signed with Rox I thought that was the best place for him.
Never been the same since he was hit in the head with a pitch Huge Mistake signing!
Superstars should get paid. Problem is, Bryant isn’t a superstar. He’s an above average to good player. Which is great. Arenado was a great player. And he’s gone in what can only be described as bad a deal ever for the Rockies.
They essentially took the Arenado money and gave it to Bryant (mostly). It’s not really saving money, and the player isn’t remotely close to Nado.
The line about Schmidt not being concerned is part of the problem. A clueless front office compounds the problems the Rockies almost always seem to have.
Excellent points!
He’s just another one of those over hyped cub that had that one fluke season.
The Rockies are going to regret this contract sooner than they think
Several days ago? That’s pretty soon.
Even when he comes back, you’ve got yourselves a glorified single/doubles hitter (he morphed into that several years ago so it shouldn’t be a surprise) who is not an OF’er (where he is more likely to get/stay injured.) Inexplicably, Maddon started playing him in the OF with the Cubs but he was never that player. The OF you’ve got out there now is a better one than with KB in LF.
Anyway, guessing the Rox had too many yes people at the feet of the ownership, who wanted KB no matter what. Simple research showed he wasn’t worth that contract.