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Writer's pictureRiley Murphy

What Happened To This Former MVP?

In 2013 the Chicago Cubs drafted Kris Bryant second overall in the MLB draft. Bryant was coming out of the University of San Diego and looking like a true elite bat that would transfer to the next level. The third baseman had elite contact, power, and discipline coming into the draft with an OPS over 1.300. Bryant also hit 31 home runs in just 62 games during his last season in San Diego. Bryant worked his way to the Majors in just two years making the Cubs MLB roster in 2015.

2015 was a special year for the Chicago Cubs. This was the year it looked like everything was starting to come together. The Cubs ace, Jake Arrieta won the very close Cy Young award race against Kershaw and Grienke. They went 97-65 but only finished third in their division. This Cubs roster looked very promising and were looking like a world series contender. Bryant played extremely well in his rookie year. Bryant was an allstar, won national league rookie of the year, and even finished the year with MVP votes. Bryant was seen to be an answer to the curse of the Chicago Cubs as they hadn't won a world series in 108 years.

In 2016 the Cubs finally won a world series and Bryant was a major factor to this. Bryant led the league in runs and won the MVP award. At this point Bryant looked like a lock to be a future hall of famer. He’s one of the few players to win a rookie of the year and an MVP award in an entire career. Not only has he done this but he did in just his two first years in the league. The only player to win both awards in their first year is Ichiro Suzuki. Bryant was considered one of the best young talents in all of baseball, unfortunately this didn't last long.

2017 was still a solid year for Bryant, but with the players it seemed that the Cubs started to regress after their championship. 2018 Bryant dealt with some injuries that have since foreshadowed his career. With the Cubs never being able to figure it out by 2021 they started to ship out most of their core players. Javier Baez got traded to the Mets, Anthony Rizzo got traded to the Yankees, and Kris Bryant got traded to the Giants all in one deadline. The Cubs had their worst year of recent finishing below 500 and signaling that it was officially an end to an era. Bryant would have his last productive year and played pretty well for the Giants.

That offseason the Colorado Rockies gave Bryant a massive 7 year 182 million dollar deal. Since the time of that deal, Bryant has only played in 157 games. He has played almost a full year total for the past three seasons. Injuries have kept Bryant off the field and when he has been healthy he has not played well at all. There was a thought for a while that Bryant could return to his MVP form, but now as he heads into his mid 30’s it’s hard to see that being a reality. Unfortunately with this projection Bryant probably won’t be a hall of famer, but will be regarded as one the Chicago Cubs all time greats. Rockie fans probably aren't fans of him, but he will always be loved in Chicago. I’m not exactly sure what the Rockies front office was thinking with this deal, considering that they had the chance to pay Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story. They had two great generational players on their team and decided to trade them away because they didn't want to pay them, and then paid Kris Bryant instead. Even if the deals didn't pan out, I still think the Rockies front office would receive less hate, since it was their home grown players. 


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