The Rockies have reinstated outfielder Kris Bryant from the 10-day injured list, per Patrick Lyons of DNVR, with infielder/outfielder Cole Tucker designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
Signed to a seven-year, $182MM contract going into 2022, Bryant hasn’t been able to get into a groove at any point over the past two seasons. He was limited to just 42 games last year due to various injuries and has played in just 65 so far this season, having missed time due to a heel bruise and finger fracture.
It will be important for him and the Rockies to get him healthy and in a good place going forward, with five years still remaining on the deal. There’s little left to play for this year since the club is 51-91 and in the bottom of the National League but Bryant will have a few weeks to get some at-bats before the winter. He’s hit .251/.338/.379 around his injuries this year but had a stronger showing last year with a line of .306/.376/.475.
Tucker, 27, signed a minor league deal with the Rockies in the winter and has bounced on and off their roster lately. He was selected in early August but was designated for assignment just a week later. He accepted an outright assignment after clearing waivers and was added back to the roster last week but has now been removed again.
He managed to get 10 plate appearances in five games around those transactions, getting four singles, a walk and one hit-by-pitch. He’s hit .280/.391/.407 in Triple-A this year, good enough for a wRC+ of 101 in the Pacific Coast League. Once a highly-touted prospect, he hasn’t been able to have consistent major league success, having slashed .216/.266/.318 in 479 big league plate appearances.
The Rockies will now place Tucker on waivers in the coming days, since the trade deadline has long passed. It’s possible that he again clears waivers and accepts an assignment to Albuquerque, the same sequence of events that happened last month, though that will be determined in due time.
Mother Tucker
Is whom this Tucker calls mother.
Before the ink dried on the Kris Bryant contract with the Rockies, I would venture to say at the time that NO mlb team would have taken Bryant and that contract even without giving up any players in return. That is, it was a very bad contact for a declining player that is injury prone that any other team could have seen. The only thing I’m surprised at is that it is even worse than anyone could have imagined after nearly 2 years into it. Wow Rockies, atta boy!
Yankees, let’s make a deal one bad contract for another Stanton for Bryant.
I think the worst part about the Bryant deal was that they basically paid more for a worse 3b. Not only did the Rockies trade Arenado but they also paid the Cardinals to take him off their hands. The amount they paid for Bryant and trading Arenado was more than the full value of the contract they gave Arenado.
Geez he’s hitting .500. What the heck.
Couldn’t resist.
Give him a day or two to break a pinky nail and miss the rest of the season.
Am I the only one who thinks its weird the headline is “Cole Tucker” DFA’d, instead of Kris Bryant reinstated?
Not at all when you consider he’s the most famous baseball player on the planet due to his relationship with Vanessa Hudgens. It’s a rather clever click-bait headline.
Tucker might as well stick with the organization so he can get called up again when Bryant goes back on the IL next week.
That’s pretty bleak but Bryant hasn’t been healthy. Hopefully he can reset and be ready for 2024 at this point.
In fairness to Bryant, this was a broken finger from a HBP. It could have happened to anyone. It did happen to Blackmon earlier this year. Just bad luck on this one.
Kris Bryant is injured again?
Wait…Scott Boras is his agent, no?
Isn’t he also the one that negotiated that outrageous multi-year contract for Stephen Strasburg? Coincidence? One reason Tampa Bay and others remain contender year-after-year is that they don’t have any multi-year contracts with players Mr. Boras represents.
P.S. I admire what the best players agent in international sports history has done. But I think the air is going out of the balloons he’s somehow imparted in owners and FO peoples heads. Strasburg’s contract was the tipping point. The man has made fortunes for himself, his players and his employees by appealing to the most desperate owners and FO people. He will be the only person or entity that can dismantle the juggernaut Orioles that Mark Elias has put together.
I’m sure Tucker and Vanessa Hudgens will make it by until he gets another opportunity.