The Rockies expect to send Kris Bryant back to the 10-day injured list, Bud Black told reporters after today’s loss to the Reds (video relayed on X by Patrick Lyons). The Colorado manager said Bryant’s rib soreness “didn’t really respond to treatment,” necessitating the IL trip. Thomas Harding of MLB.com writes that first baseman Michael Toglia is likely to be recalled in a corresponding move.
It’ll be Bryant’s second IL stint of 2024 and the seventh of the first two and a half seasons on his $182MM free agent deal. The former MVP was plagued by left foot injuries in 2022-23. He lost a month of this year to a lower back strain. This most recent injury occurred over the weekend as he caught a foul ball up against the wall.
Around the injury absences, Bryant has struggled to make an impact. He’s hitting .186/.307/.279 in 101 plate appearances this year. He has appeared in 146 games and tallied 617 trips to the plate in a Rockies uniform. In what essentially amounts to one full season’s worth of games, he has a .247/.331/.385 line in MLB’s most favorable hitter’s park. Bryant spent most of his defensive work in the corner outfield between 2022-23. The Rockies moved him primarily to first base this season in an effort to keep him healthy.
Elehuris Montero has drawn into the lineup at first base for the past few games. He and Toglia are set to split the position while Bryant is out of action. Montero hasn’t provided any kind of impact offensively, struggling to a .213/.279/.303 slash over 197 plate appearances.
The Rox have kept him on the MLB roster because he’s out of options, meaning they’d need to expose him to waivers before they could send him back to Triple-A. They have the leeway to continue giving Montero at-bats that a more competitive team wouldn’t be able to offer, but it stands to reason they’ll need to see more out of the 25-year-old fairly soon if they’re going to carry him all year.
Like the sunrise, count on it
Agreed Roast. Shocked by it. Wonder how boras is describing this? preliminary checkup for a preliminary injury? he’s surely got some bs spin going. Has had enough chances with brant constantly hurt since signing that massive contract he bs’d colorodo into giving him.
Actually makes Ian Desmond signing seem tame in comparison
Desmond was less expensive, but they signed him when they had Story at SS, and no available openings except maybe catcher.
OTOH, Bryant was $52M overpaid on the day of his signing, in my estimation, and I obviously underestimated even at $52M.
I’m not sure who has the best job in the world, Kris Bryant or Anthony Rendon. Both get paid hundreds of millions to not play and both on teams with no pressure to perform.
That’s easy. Rendon. He’s in a sunny environment 95% of the year, doesn’t have to deal with inclement weather. One may point to traffic but let’s get real, he hand over fist rich. He can pay someone consistently to drive things to him or drive him anywhere.
At least Bryant isn’t complaining the season is too long.
When you don’t really play much, it isn’t.
Excellent question, but I think it is Rendon. I don’t think he cares whether he plays or not. I think that Bryant not only cares more, but actually enjoys launching a few sky shots.
As bad as the signing was, it would be entertaining to see him play a full season at Coors.
One phone call to the cubs could’ve avoided all this. Bryant has a history of back problems since his time in Chicago and must have the most visits to the IL in baseball history.
Planning to place him on the DL? When was he ever off the DL?
Bryant being off the IL was just a clerical error; it has since been fixed!
Kris Bryant welcome to the Hall of Injury List Fame sponsored by Byron Buxton
Hello darkness, my old friend……
Perfect.
Kris Bryant rolled his ankle on the narrow streets of cobblestones, heading to the IL
Good to see you not again…. Lmao
Hot damn 7th time in less than 3 years
…and here I was thinking that Joey Votto was fleecing the Blue Jays
The only reason this Bryant isnt worse than the Rendon signing is because rendon signed for over $75 million more
Rendon is also worse because they never should have been in the market for a top bat that winter. Most organizations look at their team and fill weaknesses but Moreno has always chosen to pick big bat first and piece together pitching and every year pitching was their downfall. He had Trout and Ohtani in prime years but wanted to dump his whole budget on additional bats. Angels fans should be wishing he went through with selling the team. He’s been willing to spend the money I’ll give him that but it would have made a whole lot more sense to spend it on actual areas of need
Such a weird signing!
Wow! According to BR, he’s ranked 75th best 3B man in MLB history. Better than HOFers Freddie Lindstrom & Judy Johnson.
This is an article title we’ve seen too often
Time to hang it up
He needs to play at DH, and DH only. I thought 1B would be the safest place, but I guess not. And still baffled why they let him play four (4) games in the OF this season. Another Boras client that has absolutely crapped the bed.
Kborooczk
Don’t you have to hit 0.200 to play DH?
He can’t even DH as long as Blackmon is around.
That’s what I said a few years ago when he was at least a singles hitter. Start looking at outright release now and try to shame him into canceling some of the contract. Honestly, he should have plenty of money by now, between the stock market and 5% treasuries.
He’s hitting that bad in CO ouch
The Bryant signing is in competition for being among the top ten worst contracts in MLB history
And the others? Rendon, Zito, Baumgarner, Corbin, Stanton, Davis (Baltimore), Elsburry, Correa…
Who else is out there that I’m missing?
Jason Heyward, although as a Cubs fan, that one doesn’t sting too much, but yeah he had a disappointing stay with the Cubs. Gave one heck of a speech though!
Javy Baez might be the worst player in Major League Baseball currently. He’s been dead last in OPS for about 4 years after signing with the tigers. He’s brutal.
If he stinks that bad,vhe’s destined for the White Sox.
I used to think that Javy was just an over swinger and way too aggressive but now it seems like he just doesn’t see the ball.. He was great with the tags though.
Eric Hosmer.
Zito, though I would argue that he gave the Giants exactly what they should have EXPECTED. When you sign a guy with a 6.1/4.0 K/W, you should expect a pretty bad pitcher.
The owner of course green-lighted this signing. Boras probably got him drunk and then convinced him Bryant is this big-name stud ballplayer. Dick Monfort probably never heard of Bryant before or else just from the 2016 Cubs team. This is why MLB should only allow owners into the league who are knowledgeable fans. What a joke
He doesn’t fit the profile of a steroid guy. There is a link to past steroid use and ending up with chronic injuries however. Bryant was training to be a pro baseball player at a young age. Who knows what he used before signing a pro contract…… It’s obvious that not all ‘roid users look like Barry. Even McGuire while muscular still looked like a guy that never missed a meal. Was a terrible signing. The Rockies were bidding against themselves. Doubt any other team offered more than 5/90
Agreed, don’t link steroid use either. Rumor has it he never had a sip of alcohol, had to celebrate playoff wins with sparkling juice.
What a complete bust. One of the worst FA signings ever. The dude us made of glass.
The Rockies trade Arenado a perennial gold glove winner and middle of the order type bat while even sending the Cardinals money to cover some of his salary then go out and sign Bryant to a big long term deal a couple years later? Not the smartest offseason approach
Arenado seems to be in serious decline now. And Austin Gomber may be turning into a decent SP. So that trade wasn’t as bad for the Rockies as it might have appeared.
But I agree that the Bryant signing didn’t make sense, at least not at that price.
I suspect Arenado is less in a serious decline than just in a huff. He clearly went all woe-is-me in his final, and statistically worst, year in CO. And he is now in full woe-is-me mode again, in what is becoming his statistically worst year in StL. Stick him on the Dodgers or Yankees or any other winning team, and that “serious decline” would evaporate.
Pure conjecture on my part, but I think he plays up to his team’s record. Now would be the time for LA or NY to strike, but I doubt Stl is selling at this point.
This is absolutely NOT my shocked face.
I know this sounds petty but I have zero sympathy for this guy. He ripped on STL, along with Ryan Dumpster, in an interview and chased the money to disappear into purgatory. I know he’s laughing all the way to the bank but he has been a slug for the past 4 years and I’m here for it!
chased the money to disappear into purgatory.
=========================
This is like Jason Bay. I’m not discounting the importance of money, but Boston was a perfect place for him. The park was designed for his swing, the Wall covered up his defensive deficiencies, and the fans loved him.
Don’t you want players to play into baseball rivalries?
Even Farhan didn’t try to re-sign him, and he makes offers to everyone
Remember all the talk after his 1st few years and his hall of fame trajectory? Anointed like fidrych, charboneau, Sizemore…
In all fairness to Fidrych, although brief his career was on a kind-of, sort-of HoF trajectory until his shoulder blew up. The guy could pitch. Sizemore had a few outstanding years too, and spent years trying to make a come back. Charboneau, however, clearly sits near, if not at, the top of the most inappropriately over-hyped list.
He actually only had one good season. The Tigers thought that 250 IPs was the right amount on innings for a 21 year old rookie. And then he was finished. After all, they only missed the playoffs by 24 games.
Yeah but none of them have a song named after like Joey does. GO-JOE-CHAR-BEN-NO!
Bryant has put some mighty numbers in Colorado each plate appearance he is raking in $277k – He is another success story from the BORAS corporation. (quantity over quality)
At least Chris Davis played.
And, AFAIK, always provided 100% effort.
Bryant isn’t even hurt yet. The Rockies just know it’s coming.
He might be hurt, dude’s been injury-prone the last few seasons, but if you’re talking about the DFA, it’s too soon, and even then I’m not sure the Rockies will even do it. I don’t see precedent for the Rockies DFAing a big contract hitter, but perhaps a Rockies fan can correct me on that, I’m probably wrong.
I hate to say this but Monfort wanted that deal. He needs to either (a) sell or (b) go outside the organisationire , hire someone to run the show and get out of the way. They are the poorest run team in MLB, not even close.
Rockies should just keep Bryant on the IL until he is 100 percent healthy. This is a lost season, why rush him so he can struggle at the plate and keep getting injured.
That’s the thing – he’ll never be 100% healthy.
They tried that one of the seasons, not rushing him back. Declared healthy, stronger than ever at the start of the next season and, well, same ole, same ole.
Has there ever been a former mvp that has had more of a down trajectory as Kris Bryant? Feel so bad for him.
This is going back a ways (how old am I?), but Zoilo Versalles never came close to his MVP year afterward. That might have been more of the MVP year being a fluke, however, rather than a shocking downward trajectory. I do not know if he was injury-bit like Bryant.
What the hell happened to Kris Bryant ? He hit some kinda wall n lost his MVP edge. Can’t even put up average-ish #s playing half his games in Colorado. Seems like good guy too. Maybe he can find his 2nd wind. Dude was a shooting star. Bummer seeing player fall so far so quickly.
Agreed. I enjoyed seeing highlights of him playing. He was a key piece in the Cubs winning the world series. Maybe he just needs to leave Colorado.
Every Cub fan is grateful the Cubs dumped Bryant and Baez when they did and dodged a bullet. We got good returns on both of these bombs. Sadly, they should have kept Schwarber.
There comes a time for almost every team where they should trade everyone. You need to put up with one season of the writers complaining about tanking, but you’re better off in the long-run.
…..AND the comment section of Bleacher Nation
He tried, and at least played innings.
I’m shocked ! Who saw this coming ?
This is on the Rockies though. They should have known better, just as did everyone else in baseball. It’s like the Padres signing Hosmer those years ago – right off the bat everyone knows it’s a horrible no-win contract for the club…except for the club signing those players.
Those 2016 Cubs guys fell apart offensively (and physically in Bryant’s case) around November 2019. Thanks, Mike Fiers =\
It’s not like he gets hurt on purpose. KB was on a hall of fame trajectory. I’m sure no one feels worse or is more frustrated with the way injuries have derailed his career and legacy.
It seems amazing to me how many players can’t stay on field once getting a big contract . Bryant and Rendon good examples
Shocking how few of games these guys miss. Have to wonder if they stay motivated to still work out to stay in shape
Correction: how many games these guys actually play in
Our top story tonight, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead, and Kris Bryant is on the IL.
Boras clients Bryant, Snell, et all signs long terms deal to IL.
“This will be great, “ says IL coach & doctor. “I’ve never seen another agent provide the IL league with so many players.”
But, most important, Snell git his.
What an awful signing by the Rockies. Bryant is a very sensitive fellow.