Presented by POOL SCOUTS.
This Day In Sports…April 17, 2015, 10 years ago today:
Former Boise Hawk Kris Bryant makes his long-awaited major league debut and goes 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in a 5-4 loss to San Diego at Wrigley Field. It was reminiscent of Bryant’s first game with the Hawks in 2013, when he went 0-for-5, striking out all five times after being the No. 2 overall pick in the MLB Draft. In each case, the debut performance was an aberration. Bryant would go on to be named National League Rookie of the Year in 2015, and a year later would be named NL Most Valuable Player as he led the Cubs to their first World Series title in 108 years.
Bryant had torn it up in spring training for the Cubs in 2015, hitting an MLB-leading nine home runs and batting .425. But alas, the team sent him to down to Triple-A Iowa to start the season. The move was seen as a way for the Cubs to game the system and keep Bryant under contract for an extra year by having him spend 12 days in the minors. Once he was finally called up, Bryant was more than ready for the bigs. He went on to hit .276 with 26 home runs. Bryant also knocked in 99 runs, the most by a rookie since Albert Pujols in 2001.
He continued to star in Chicago until the 2021 trade deadline—by that time, the Cubs were sellers, and Bryant was dealt to the San Francisco Giants. It looked like a good fit at the outset, and in Boise we still thought this former Hawk had a chance to be an all-timer. But Bryant left prior to the 2022 season, signing a seven-year, $182 million contract with the Colorado Rockies. And it has not gone well.
Bryant has been injury-prone since heading for Denver, and his contract has been widely panned. Meanwhile, Bryant has second-guessed his decision to go to the Rockies, who have not shown an ability to build and compete in the NL West. He’s been on the injured list constantly. On Monday, Bryant got what might be the saddest injury news of all. Colorado placed Bryant on the IL again, but this time it’s due to what is being termed “lumbar degenerative disk disease,” according to MLB.com’s Thomas Harding.
In the MLB.com story, Johns Hopkins describes the disease this way: “Lumbar disk disease may occur when a disk in the low back area of the spine bulges or herniates from between the bony area of the spine. Lumbar disk disease causes lower back pain and leg pain and weakness that is made worse by movement and activity.” It sounds like something that’s irreversible, too, meaning Bryant’s back may never return to its younger days.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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