Kris Bryant cannot possibly be a happy man right now. Not even with $100 million of the Colorado Rockies’ money in the bank.
Being injured – very likely permanently, at least as professional athletes go – sucks. If you’re a competitor at all, you live with the feeling that you’ve let all your teammates down in a big way. That’s tough to live with. And on the other hand, if you’re just “over it;” tired of the game and everything that goes with it, and you’re ready to throw in the towel, it feels even worse.
There are those who know Kris Bryant who say he’s gone from the first category to the second. Kinda hard to blame him. Sure, he’s getting another $28 million from the Rockies for this season, and the next… and the next. But the team has already placed him on the 60-day injured list before the first sunflower seed shell landed on the grass at Talking Stick. And he still has to go through the indignation of hearing about his extensive injury history, his historically terrible (from the team’s perspective) contract and the calls for him to give it all back and go back home to Las Vegas.
If only it were that simple.
Bryant is getting his money. All of it. His seven-year, $182 million contract was and is fully guaranteed. It’s just a matter of how and when he gets it now.
Forget the notion of Bryant ever suiting up and setting foot on the field again at 20th and Blake. With an arthritic back (and those among us who have had such an ailment can attest) he can’t swing a bat with any force at all. Probably hurts to tie his own cleats at this point. He’s gotten all the treatments and surgeries anyone can think of. It’s not going to matter. Arthritis remains undefeated.
As an active player, the former MVP is gone, and he ain’t coming back.
So now what?
From the perspective of the Rockies’ new front office, it would be great if Bryant’s camp (his agent is the notorious Scott Boras) would agree to let the Rockies pay the remaining three seasons of Bryant’s deal spread out over several years, thereby reducing the year-by-year impact on the mid-market Rockies payroll for the next three seasons. While the expectations for the upcoming season are low, at this time next year (or whenever the looming work stoppage/lockout ends in 2027) during the second season of the Paul DePodesta tenure, the vibe will be much more competitive. That’s when having $27 million of what amounts to “dead money” on the books will hurt that much more.
And how about the irony of Rockies owner Dick Monfort helping lead the charge for a salary cap in Major League Baseball while much of his current player payroll/cap space would be eaten up by a guy who can’t play.
Sometimes there is no justice.
And from Bryant’s perspective, it would be great if he could just retire in peace, collect everything that’s owed to him and never have to hear about it ever again.
At this point, both sides should want the same thing: a quiet ending to the Bryant saga in Denver.
It’s hard to imagine that new Rockies General Manager Josh Byrnes, who spent the past decade collecting World Series rings in Los Angeles (where Boras is based) hasn’t already had some discussions with the agent regarding a Bobby Bonilla-type ending to the Bryant-Rockies saga. At this point, if the money part isn’t up for debate, the rest should be easy, right?
A high ranking MLB Players Union rep once told me, “My job isn’t to make you happy. It’s to make you rich.” That’s the prevailing thought among agents. Fine. But Bryant has already been made rich. Now it’s time for his agent to help make him happy.
