Bounce-back season in the cards for Kris Bryant?
Kris Bryant has looked better this spring than he did all of last season and if he remains healthy, could be a steal in fantasy drafts with his injury history keeping his ADP low.
Video Transcript
- Spring numbers for veteran hitters don't matter much at all. But sometimes a peek behind the curtain can be revealing. So while it's all not that notable that Kris Bryant is batting 2.97 with four homers in Cactus League action, it is fascinating that he's already hit at least three balls harder than he did in any of his 42 games last season. In fact, his 111.1 mile per hour double on March 10 topped anything he did last year by more than three miles per hour and was his hardest hit ball since 2019. Bryant is healthy again now after missing much of last season with back and foot injuries, and the Rockies can help keep him that way by allowing him to DH on occasion. While he wasn't much of a factor in fantasy leagues, even when active last season, he did manage to hit 306 thanks in part to a career low 15% strikeout rate.
He remains an injury risk and he's probably not getting back to his MVP level performance from his early days, but he's hardly washed up at age 31. And with his power apparently coming back some, he could be a nice surprise in fantasy leagues this year. There are only so many players that are capable of helping in both average and homers. And most that do are getting snatched up way earlier than Bryant in this year's drafts.