The good news is that Kris Bryant woke up today feeling a lot better about his oblique issue. The bad news is that the Cubs don’t have the best track record when it comes to guys who have injuries, but don’t go on the Injured List, and then just kinda linger in that nebulous “not quite right” space. Heck, that’s been most of Bryant’s 2020 season.
Here’s the latest on Bryant:
"I think I'm still optimstic it's not an IL thing right now." … Trainers optimistic. Bryant optimistic
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) September 22, 2020
Ross: Kris Bryant getting treatment now. Feeling better today. Still some stiffness.
"You have to be cautious with this thing," Ross said. "To me, that's a good sign."
Not in lineup and not available, but Ross still optimistic it's not an IL thing.
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) September 22, 2020
Ross said Kris Bryant hasn't had imaging done on his side yet. Just in treatment mode right now. And not shut down for the rest of regular season at this point. Manager said he feels like Bryant needs at-bats before October, if he keeps improving and it's possible.
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) September 22, 2020
It wouldn’t make a lot of sense for Bryant to miss the final week – given how he’s looked – and then come back for game one of the postseason. He’ll need to be back before then.
Some not great news on Bryant’s main fill-in, too:
Ross says Bote will be the main fill-in at third while Bryant is out, but noted that Bote is also dealing with some minor things that the manager has to balance. So, Nico Hoerner also an option there, too.
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) September 22, 2020
Bote is starting tonight, so it definitely must be a balance. There have been several games over the past two weeks where it didn’t make sense that Bote wasn’t starting, so this probably explains it. Rather unfortunate that, at the same time Bryant goes down, and the Cubs have a capable fill-in, he is also dealing with lingering issues. Neat. Cool. Postseason ho!