With the Chicago Cubs and Colorado Rockies set to spar this week at Coors Field, the Rockies will see perhaps the best matchup of position players that they’ve seen all season. Because the weather on Monday night was kind to these two teams, the series will begin with a doubleheader on Tuesday.
Last year, Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant took home the National League Most Valuable Player award, but the Rockies’ Nolan Arenado doesn’t lag far behind – if at all – on the talent front.
Over the first two-plus years of his Major League career, the 25-year-old Bryant boasts a 15.2 WAR mark per baseball-reference.com, while batting .286 with 71 home runs, 217 RBIs and 25 stolen bases on the other side of the game, and he undoubtedly played a key role in the Cubs’ World Series win last year.
In the other dugout, 26-year-old Arenado holds a 21.4 WAR, 119 homers, 397 RBIs and nine stolen bases, but he’s also been around a little longer with four full seasons under his belt.
That kind of talent, Bryant said, can be hard to come by in this game, but he’s had the pleasure of studying and admiring Arenado’s game for some time now.
“He’s slightly older than me, but it seems like he’s been around for so long,” Bryant said. “I’ve watched him for a while now, but yeah, absolutely I look up to him. He’s a similar player to me, obviously we play at the same position, but he does things that are unbelievable on the field. It’s nice that I can sit down and watch him and pick his brain any chance I can.”
Although the two have gotten the chance to collaborate at All-Star games over the years, Bryant said he believes that the recognition from those contests isn’t enough for the Rockies’ star position player, even going so far as to say he’s underrated outside of Denver.
“It just seems like he does everything right,” Bryant said. “I’ve gotten a chance to kind of get to know him at the All-Star games the past few years, and what a guy. Obviously, I don’t think he gets enough attention for what he does on the field.
“It just seems like he’s a consistent performer and for myself, that’s something I strive for too. I just want to be consistent, and that’s who he is, and is somebody that I can look up to.”
Bryant believes that while the two of them are very similar “if you look on the surface”–particularly in their approaches to the plate and many of the things they both do well–Arenado has a leg up on him at third base itself.
“I think you look at his defense, and there’s just something to it,” Bryant said. “It seems like it just comes naturally. He throws a lot of balls on the run, which I notice. For me, I don’t think I’m at that point where I want to do that. I kind of set my feet and then throw. Yeah, different playing styles, obviously, but I think they yield some of the same results, which is great.”
Arenado, for his part, reciprocates the level of respect for Bryant and agreed that he too was a well-rounded talent for the Cubs.
“[I appreciate] all of it,” Arenado said. “He’s got a really good game. He’s got power, he can run. He kind of has every tool, it seems, in the game that you’d want.”
He, too, pointed out the stylistic differences of their approaches to the positions, but he took it another step by distinguishing their patterns at the plate.
“We both pull the ball a lot,” Arenado said. “Other than that, I don’t know. His style is a little big different than mine. He’s a great ball player, but when we hit homers, it’s mostly on the pull side.”
Either way, when you put Nolan Arenado and Kris Bryant together, especially when the Rockies are playing as well as they are, it’s sure to produce some exciting baseball – much to Bryant’s chagrin.
“You never know what to expect from him on the field,” Bryant said. “He makes unbelievable plays; you know he’s always going to give a tough at bat. On the other team, he’s the guy that you don’t want him to beat you, but at the same time it’s really fun to watch him play.”