Kris Bryant’s woes with the Rockies blamed on NL Central team by MLB insider

Modified Apr 11, 2025 11:10 GMT

MLB: Milwaukee Brewers at Colorado Rockies - Source: Imagn — Rockies star Kris Bryant (Imagn)

ESPN MLB analyst Buster Olney had a very interesting take on who to pin the blame on when it comes to Rockies star Kris Bryant's form. The insider theorized that Bryant's former squad, NL Central's Chicago Cubs, should take responsibility for the hot corner star's dip in form since his arrival in the Mile High.

Kris Bryant spent six-and-a-half seasons in the north side of Chicago before a rental with the San Francisco Giants in 2021. In 2022, he signed a massive seven-year, $182 million deal with the Rockies. Since then, however, he has only appeared in 167 games for the ball club.

"We've always talked about Anthonmy Rendon, and being someone who doesn't necessarily just burn to play baseball everyday—I wonder about that with Kris [Bryant]. If that's the case, I think the Chicago Cubs are partly to blame for that" said Olney. (28:50-29:12)

Olney declared his skepticism on the MartyTimeTV podcast of Marty Casswell. The analyst made an analysis similar to that of Angels star Anthony Rendon who has spent the majority of his time in Anaheim on the shelf.

"You think about how his career started in 2015 and it opens with service time manipulation, and everybody in the industry knew that he was the best prospect in the minors. But they kept him down in the minor leagues because they want him to delay his free agency buy year. I suspect that it probably began to warp his feeling about baseball." (29:15-29:50)

The pundit further elaborated in the episode that the World Series-winning Cubs squad "lost their joy" with the front office being the root cause of the dissatisfaction.

"We've seen the Cubs' spending in recent years, they've run the organization through the prism of 'how do we make as much money as we possibly can, and maybe the players felt that." (30:35-30:47)

Kris Bryant's underwhelming Rockies stint

At the time of writing, the Colorado Rockies have approximately paid $1,000,000 for every game that Kris Bryant has played for the squad. The multiple-time All-Star and former NL MVP has been hit by the injury bug since sealing his big-money deal in 2021.

Bryant's struggle was so immense that even Rockies fans at Coors Field started to boo him.

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The third baseman has compiled a stat sheet of 17 home runs and 61 RBIs while batting .247/.328/.375 with an OPS of .703. Aged 33, it would be interesting to see if the former MVP can turn things around in Colorado.

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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Edited by Daniel Santiago