Rockies first baseman/outfielder Kris Bryant was recently diagnosed with a chronic, degenerative back injury that has landed him on the injured list. On Sunday, he told reporters that he’s not ready to give up on playing baseball, but that he knows how hard his fight back will be.
Some of the quotes:
- “I want to be on the field. I want to play the game. I want to talk to doctors, see if there’s anything else we can do. But I’m not gonna give up.”
- “A back surgery is a pretty big surgery. Obviously, I’m not an expert on it. Maybe I should be by now, with all the problems I’ve had. I want to see all my options, too … so that I’m not, like, in constant pain and nauseous, where I can’t eat, which was the situation today. I just woke up not feeling great, so it’s just extremely frustrating.”
- “You know, I’m not 23 anymore. So you don’t feel like you can just roll out of bed and be Superman. But at the same time, I feel like I’ve done everything I can.
- “I’ve worked extremely hard in the offseason and continued it through spring training and in the season. And that’s just the frustrating part. I just want something to kind of fall my way. But I’ll keep going.”
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“I get through two at-bats and then I get to the third at-bat and I’m like, ‘Oh, this isn’t good.’ And then the fourth at-bat, I’m like, ‘I just got to get this at-bat over within the first couple of swings.’ And that’s not a great spot to be. I’m not doing myself or the team any good service if I don’t speak up. Then the next day you get up and it’s like, ‘I can’t move.'”
Bryant is now 33 years old and far removed from his MVP form with the Cubs. He was a four-time All-Star in parts of seven seasons with the Cubs, also winning MVP in the 2016 season, when the Cubs won the World Series. It’s fair to say the first few years of his career set the foundation of a Hall of Fame career, but things have totally fizzled since. Injuries are a major culprit.
He signed a seven-year, $182 million deal with the Rockies before the 2022 season. He’s had nine stints on the injured list and has only appeared in 170 games total, hitting .244/.324/.370 (84 OPS+) with 17 homers and -1.6 WAR. In his seven years with the Cubs, Bryant slashed .279/.378/.508 (133 OPS+) with 160 homers and 28 WAR.
Bryant still has three years and $81 million left on his contract after this season, so there’s no reason to retire instead of collecting the rest of that contract. It certainly sounds like an uphill battle to return to positive on-field production, however. There’s just only so much that can be done with a chronic back disease at age 33.