Say what you want, but dis Bryant guy might have a future, pal.
For the @IowaCubs tonight — Kris Bryant starts his MLB Rehab hitting second as the DH and RHP Tyler Chatwood begins his rehab starting on the mound. @deeneehlis and I will be live from Werner Park at 6:45 PM. Listen on AM 940 – https://t.co/dPm9M3QzmE – https://t.co/jbxx34qqLq. pic.twitter.com/TTKgm1NT2Z
— Alex Cohen (@voiceofcohen) August 27, 2018
Kris Bryant and Tyler Chatwood are expected to begin rehab assignments with Iowa tomorrow. The I-Cubs take on the Storm Chasers in Omaha at 7:05 p.m. pic.twitter.com/Yt1wW11Rbg
— Iowa Cubs (@IowaCubs) August 26, 2018
Kris Bryant’s (second) minor league rehab stint begins tonight, this time with the AAA Iowa Cubs, where he will deploy his new two-handed-finish swing. As he’s been dealing with left shoulder inflammation for months, and has a notoriously high one-armed finish with his left arm, going to a two-armed approach certainly makes plenty of sense from a health perspective.
And for his part, Bryant is touting the possibility that he could actually hit even better with this swing (NBC Sports Chicago): “I feel a lot more powerful. I feel like I’m hitting the ball farther …. [E]ven in the cage, off the tee, the ball just seems to be jumping off the bat. It could be the same, honestly, I don’t know. But just in my mind, I feel like the ball’s really jumping off the bat and anytime you have that upper edge in terms of how you’re thinking and your confidence, that’s all that really matters. So that’s how I’m feeling.”
We’ll see about that part – wouldn’t it be crazy if the injury led to a change Bryant wasn’t going to make otherwise, and it wound up making him even better?! – but right now I’d gladly just settle for good old fashioned, already awesome, healthy Kris Bryant.
You can expect at least two games for him with Iowa, getting back into game speed at the plate, testing out how the shoulder feels after game action. It could certainly be several more games than that, and no one has a perfect sense of when Bryant will re-join the big league team. But it could be some time this week. That is to say, I don’t think the Cubs are going to wait for September 1 for roster reasons when Kris (freaking) Bryant is ready to go.