Kris Bryant’s frustrating Rockies tenure continued last week when the former MVP went on the injured list thanks to a lower back strain. The placement was retroactive to April 14, so he would be eligible to return tomorrow. That’s not going to happen, as manager Bud Black told reporters that the first baseman/outfielder hasn’t been cleared for baseball activities (X link via Patrick Lyons).
Black stressed that surgery is not on the table, but there’s no timeline for Bryant’s return. Injuries have been a recurring theme throughout his first three seasons in Denver. Bryant’s 2022 campaign was ended in August by plantar fasciitis in his left foot. He had multi-week absences for a heel contusion and a broken finger last year. The four-time All-Star has appeared in 135 games with Colorado, tallying 571 plate appearances. He owns a middling .249/.329/.391 batting line, including a .149/.273/.255 mark over 13 games this year.
Elehuris Montero has taken over as the primary first baseman with Bryant out. The 25-year-old has yet to take advantage of the opportunity. Montero entered tonight’s game against the Padres with a .210/.250/.226 slash in 68 plate appearances. Only the Astros have gotten less offensive production from their first basemen overall.
The corner outfield hasn’t been much better. Colorado’s left fielders entered play Tuesday with a .149/.237/.253 line, placing 28th (above the Dodgers and White Sox) by measure of wRC+. That’s mostly because of a tough start from Nolan Jones, who was arguably the team’s best player in 2023. After an impressive .297/.389/.542 showing last year, Jones has started the ’24 campaign with a .148/.219/.250 slash. He snapped an 0-26 skid with a base hit in tonight’s win over San Diego but was removed from the game in the seventh inning.
Colorado announced that Jones experienced some back stiffness (relayed by Luke Zahlmann of the Denver Gazette). The Rox will hope it’s nothing more than a blip as the 25-year-old tries to recapture last year’s form. Jake Cave came off the bench to finish the game in left and could pick up a few more at-bats if Jones needs any time off.
Injuries have also been a story on the other side of the ball. Colorado went into the season without Germán Márquez and Antonio Senzatela as they rehab from Tommy John procedures. Kyle Freeland went on the shelf with an elbow injury last week. The southpaw indicated that testing revealed a small strain in his UCL but seemed optimistic about the prognosis, suggesting that doctors didn’t expect it to worsen (link via MLB.com’s Thomas Harding). The Rockies have floated a four-to-six week timeline for Freeland’s return.
In more positive news, lefty reliever Lucas Gilbreath took a significant step forward in the recovery from his March 2023 Tommy John procedure. Colorado sent Gilbreath to Triple-A Albuquerque to begin a minor league rehab assignment. The results weren’t great — two runs on a hit and two walks with one out — yet it’s more notable that he was able to toss 18 pitches in his first affiliated game action since August 2022.
Now 28, Gibreath turned in solid results between 2021-22. He logged 85 2/3 innings with a 3.78 ERA, punching out a quarter of opponents. While he’s had below-average command, Gilbreath looked the part of a potential setup option before the surgery.
Kris keeping his value high with every official at-bat, with being injured. SF was so smart not to resign him
Fortunate. Wouldn’t call them smart.
I actually feel bad for the Rockies, they try but nearly every move they make backfires.
they earned this.
salary dumped franchise icon Nolan Arenado to St. Louis for nothing but Ausitn Gomber, then turned right around next offseason and gave Arenado’s money to Bryant.
A well deserved disaster for Colorado. I hope it keeps the top brass awake at night.
Sad, but true. Letting Story walk was one of the rare smart moves they made. Seems players have just given up there lately. Blackmon is another that went from great to ghost.
Blackmon just got old.
Arenado publicly whined that he wanted out and would not compromise. The Rockies had no choice but to take the best deal available. The Cards deal wasn’t great, but they got Gomber and Elehuris Montero, who has been better than the stats say this year. He is showing a lot more plate discipline and hitting the ball hard. He has just gotten really unlucky so far.
It is very funny that as soon as he got to St Louis, they started losing too. And he has not exactly been lighting it up either. Basically league average and his defense is no longer elite either.
I am not that unhappy with the deal.
But nonetheless…unhappy.
Yeah, but not at the results of the deal. More at the reason the deal needed to be made in the first place.
why did Arenado “whine” in the first place? (I wouldn’t call it whining)
-incompetent front office and indifferent ownership.
they handled the situation in a familiar manner – with incompetence and indifference.
The Rockies DID have a choice. The choice was to spend and field a competitive team or remain in purgatory. They chose the cheaper option and thus, deserve the consequences.
When he complained (better?) it was 2021. The Rockies had been to the playoffs 2 out the prior 3 years. At best, it was petulant child wanting to spend someone else’s money. My opinion, he was trying to hijack the team. He was a cancer and needed to be cut off. I wish him well, but I wish I never have to talk about him again also.
Arenado forced his way out.
I don’t feel bad for stupidity.
They’ve put together a halfway decent minor league pipeline of position players right now. That’s at least an upgrade from what they’ve been doing.
Still has to be the 2nd worst franchise behind OAK to me though.
Man if the Rockies traded Blackmon in 2019, story in 2020 or 21, not sign arenado to a big deal and trade him for an actual return, then the Rockies would be in a great place
But I guess it is worth it to get scammed by the cardinals and let stars walk and fade away
And what, sign Baez and Rizzo to go along with Bryant?
They play a zero mistake allowed game in Denver. They’ve tried over the years. But they have an ownership that couldn’t keep good baseball people. They’ll set an agenda…then change it. They had a bunch of the people who built those good Montreal teams. Now some have moved on to Atlanta and many other places. The people who aren’t in major headlines. Good baseball people. Montfort likes to run his own team. Paid Arenado to go away….then signed Kris Bryant. Those weren’t front office decisions.
Dear Dick Monfort,
I have zero experience or qualification to be a MLB executive. But I can’t do any worse than the people you currently employ. You have nothing to lose. Offer me whatever you currently pay you’re front office people and I accept. I guarantee the team will improve, they can’t get worse. Seriously, hit me up.
You realize Dick Monfort IS the front office, right?
Bryant is either very soft or very brittle, or both.
It started in his last couple seasons with the Cubs.. he would have a sore this or that, but never anything major.. and just when he’d start to get into a groove, he’d miss a couple games and struggle to get going again.
Now it seems he’s taken it to the next level. Like I know plantar fasciitis can be painful, but there’s so many ways to treat that to get through a season and then let it heal. He could have also DH’d only and minimized how much he was on his feet. He’s had numerous “sore this” or “sore that,” and I’m sure every player gets pretty sore after training and playing at a high level 6 out of 7 days a week, but maybe Bryant thinks he’s especially sore.
It just sucks bc he had special talent, and now he’s seemingly uninterested in playing.
in Chicago, Bryant was always skipping games when he would get a common cold, when he slept funny, etc. and its why even in fully healthy seasons he was still missing 12-20 games a year.
He just does not love baseball enough. I think its always just been a means to an end.
When he first came up in 2015, all the chatter was about his future free agency.
I feel like when Bryant’s end with the cubs came it was all about that horrible 2015 campaign and him not getting paid and all of that
Now that he got paid (and of course took the largest contract with the worst team), he doesn’t feel like playing anymore, what a coincidence
2015 was by no means “horrible” for Bryant, who won ROY, and the man shed a few tears when dealt from Chicago to San Francisco.
Bryant loves the Cubs organization, he does not love baseball.. Thats all there is to it.
I should have specified, I meant how he always talked about how he was 1 day behind in service time that year and how he was the prime example for the players union to change the service time rules
Bryant’s injuries have come from either playing hard or just dumb luck. He missed quite a bit of time last year because he got hit by a pitch. This most recent injury happened when he hit the wall catching a ball. I wouldn’t say he is uninterested in playing. I would say he has maybe lost a step or two, but he still does try hard.
As far as the plantar fasciitis goes, I have had it. I could barely get up to go to the bathroom without intense pain. I couldn’t imagine trying to do anything athletic at a high level. If his case was as bad as mine, you can’t fault him for that.
I think an IL break for Jones would be a good reset for him.
Teams like the Rockies and As make the idea of contraction rather than expansion a better option for MLB. You don’t need more garbage franchises sucking the govt teat than we already have.
I’ll add the WhiteSox as well. Garbage team shouldn’t exist anymore.
Tell that to someone who grew up with the whitesox. Original franchise. Reinsdorf will pass on. But MLB wouldn’t stomach the brand loss to contract anything.
There will always be last place teams. The Rangers and Dbacks were both cheeks 2 years ago and turned it around. The A’s were good just a few years ago. Rebuilds just take longer with poorer player development
They do suck ass though.
Kris Bryant is the Anthony Rendon of the NL West at this point.
A poorly run team gets poor results.
In other headlines, “water is wet”
Rockies GM and ownership need to be heavily scrutinized and upgraded. Their decisions over the last decade are HORRIBLE and that’s saying it lightly. Trading arenado for magic beans and then using the money they would have to give to brittle bone Bryant. Resigning bard for 2 years after CLEARLY a career year out of nowhere. Signing FA Desmond to play a position he should never have played. Awful development of pitchers in their farm. Not trading Blackmon at peak of his value the last year of his previous contract. Not trading DJ lamehieu at end of his deal with ROX. The list goes on. The FO needs to be fully turned over.
this has been evident for quite some time, its just that ownership does not care. Margins are slightly profitable and thats good enough for them.
Just crazy how Bryant can’t stay healthy. As a Chicago sports fan he was often injured, especially the last 2 seasons or so with the Cubs and nothing changed. Sad, really. He could have been a tremendous ball player.
I’ve noticed how the Bryant apologists have become fewer and fewer. Sometimes reality is undeniable. Many of us saw the writing on the wall in CHC when he never missed an opportunity to sit out a game or two due to a tweaked hair follicle or a weird taste in his mouth, etc. His actual IL placements have never told the whole story.