Rockies To Place Kris Bryant On Injured List

The Rockies expect to send Kris Bryant back to the 10-day injured list, Bud Black told reporters after today’s loss to the Reds (video relayed on X by Patrick Lyons). The Colorado manager said Bryant’s rib soreness “didn’t really respond to treatment,” necessitating the IL trip. Thomas Harding of MLB.com writes that first baseman Michael Toglia is likely to be recalled in a corresponding move.

It’ll be Bryant’s second IL stint of 2024 and the seventh of the first two and a half seasons on his $182MM free agent deal. The former MVP was plagued by left foot injuries in 2022-23. He lost a month of this year to a lower back strain. This most recent injury occurred over the weekend as he caught a foul ball up against the wall.

Around the injury absences, Bryant has struggled to make an impact. He’s hitting .186/.307/.279 in 101 plate appearances this year. He has appeared in 146 games and tallied 617 trips to the plate in a Rockies uniform. In what essentially amounts to one full season’s worth of games, he has a .247/.331/.385 line in MLB’s most favorable hitter’s park. Bryant spent most of his defensive work in the corner outfield between 2022-23. The Rockies moved him primarily to first base this season in an effort to keep him healthy.

Elehuris Montero has drawn into the lineup at first base for the past few games. He and Toglia are set to split the position while Bryant is out of action. Montero hasn’t provided any kind of impact offensively, struggling to a .213/.279/.303 slash over 197 plate appearances.

The Rox have kept him on the MLB roster because he’s out of options, meaning they’d need to expose him to waivers before they could send him back to Triple-A. They have the leeway to continue giving Montero at-bats that a more competitive team wouldn’t be able to offer, but it stands to reason they’ll need to see more out of the 25-year-old fairly soon if they’re going to carry him all year.