Oh yeah, Kris Bryant got badly injured, too. In the throes of despair about the Cubs’ collapse, I almost forgot about that.
If you missed it yesterday, Bryant slipped at first base trying to beat out a double play and rolled his right ankle (the one that sits below his bad knee), and ultimately had to be helped off the field in obvious pain.
The injury was originally termed an ankle sprain after in-park X-rays revealed no fracture. Bryant is now scheduled to get an MRI today to help ascertain the extent of the damage. Obviously the range of potential outcomes on a sprained ankle can go from “oh, that’s painful but you’ll be fine in a few days” to “yeah, you’re gonna miss a few weeks while that heals” to “oh crap, you really destroyed all the ligaments and tendons in there and we’re gonna have to operate.”
Until we have a sense of what the damage is – and get word that the bum knee definitely isn’t implicated – there’s no sense in going too far with the speculation. With just six games left and the Cubs all but eliminated from postseason contention, and when considering the knee, it’s possible Bryant will just be shut down for the year.
There is a ton of future value wrapped up in Bryant’s final two years under team control with the Cubs – both as a core contributor and/or as a potential trade piece if the Cubs elect to go nuts this offseason – that it’s probably not worth risking the kind of dramatic return Anthony Rizzo pulled off. Bryant has had a great year in spite of everything, and this might be the end of it.
We’ll see what the MRI shows.