Copyright The Denver Post
Every morning, Kris Bryant wakes up and tests his lower back, hoping the pain and stiffness have lessened. Every morning, he’s disappointed. “I wish I had better things to tell you,” Bryant said from his home in Las Vegas. “It’s not in the best shape, and that’s pretty disheartening for me. It’s exhausting for me waking up and hoping to feel (better). I can’t tell you the last time I woke up feeling I’m in a good spot.” And so Bryant’s baseball career remains in limbo, leaving many fans to consider his contract as one of the worst in Colorado sports history. Meanwhile, the Rockies, expected to announce their new front-office boss as early as Monday, are on the cusp of a new era. But whoever gets the job will have to wrestle with the specter of Bryant’s uncertain future. He’s under contract for three more seasons, and the club still owes him $81 million. As I began my phone interview with Bryant, I was half-expecting to hear news that he was either making steady progress and hoping to play baseball again in 2026 or that he was ready to call it quits and retire from a game he’s played since he was a toddler. Neither of those scenarios is currently in play. Bryant, however, insists he wants to become a productive baseball player again. On the advice of Rockies head trainer Keith Dugger, Bryant has been doing Pilates three times a week, hoping the training will strengthen his core and alleviate the pain in his back. He’s also stepped away from the baseball activities that he used to focus on during the offseason. “I’m kind of a Pilates guru now,” he said. “I’m trying to get to as good a place as I can, on a normal, day-to-day basis.” Added Dugger, “I’ve told Kris that we are willing to search anything, everything, and everywhere to get him better. We are trying to strengthen his core muscle, and every week is an adjustment. There are short-term goals he’s trying to reach, and then we move on. We are trying to find stepping stones to try to move forward, so that in December, he starts some baseball stuff.” But right now, Bryant remains discouraged. “If you asked me two or three months ago, I would say (my back pain) was not affecting my everyday life,” he said. “But now it is, which is really annoying to me because usually when you kind of just rest, it’s supposed to get better. So maybe I’m at a point where I should just do a bunch of stuff to see if that helps me.” The one-time National League MVP and hero of the Cubs’ 2016 World Series championship season turns 34 on Jan. 4. He has been diagnosed with lumbar degenerative disc disease. The condition involves the wear and tear of the spine in his lower back and has required multiple treatments, including an ablation procedure, to manage the pain. Treatments have not provided the relief he hoped. Bryant said it’s not the torque of swinging a bat that shoots pain into his lower back. “The twisting of hitting a baseball, I was able to do those things,” he said. “That was never my concern. It was the running and the hitting the ground with my feet and the compression into my spine. And it’s the sharp bending-over sensations when I’m diving for a ball or diving back to the bag. Those quick movements that are unorthodox, those always got me.” Bryant has played only 170 games with Colorado since signing a franchise-record seven-year, $182 million contract before the 2022 season. He’s hit .244 with 17 homers and 61 RBIs. Retirement, with a financial agreement worked out with the Rockies, seems like the sensible course of action. It’s what former Nationals ace Stephen Strasburg eventually did when he finally retired in April 2024. Strasburg, who had not pitched since June 9, 2022, is receiving all the remaining $105 million owed from his original seven-year, $245 million contract. His original contract was heavily deferred — $11.4 million annually, according to USA Today — with Strasburg scheduled to receive $26.5 million in 2027, ’28 and ’29. When Strasburg retired, the contract was restructured to spread out the deferrals further into the future. I asked Bryant if he and the Rockies might work out a similar deal. He didn’t want to go there. “Personally, I don’t want to be involved in those (discussions) because I want to be a baseball player,” he said. “That’s the thing that eats at me the most. It’s tough to describe. I’ve played this game for 30 years now, not professionally, of course, but it’s all I have ever known.” Bryant said that watching the Rockies lose 119 games was a difficult experience. “This past year, sitting back and having to watch was just sad,” he said. “But watching the playoffs and seeing some of my friends still playing, that gives me the motivation to try and play. So I don’t have those conversations (about retirement), thank goodness, because I don’t want to. I just want to be a baseball player.” So, what is Bryant going to tell the new front office boss when they sit down to discuss Bryant’s status with the Rockies? “I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve been in contact with our training staff, so I’m sure they can fill them in. When you have a guy like me, with all the problems like I’ve had, the training staff is on speed dial.”
