Colorado Rockies win the Kris Bryant sweepstakes with monster seven-year deal
By Josh Hill
Kris Bryant finally has a new home, as the former MVP and World Series champion is officially off the market.
Now that the MLB Lockout is behind us, the free agency frenzy is satisfyingly kicking up dust.
Specifically, if your team is on a spending spree times are good and the thrill of baseball fervor is back. Life is especially good in Colorado, where the Rockies made one of the splashiest moves of the offseason by landing one of the premier free agents on the market.
According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the Colorado Rockies are not only signing former World Series winner and NL MVP Kris Bryant but paying him an absolute haul to acquire his talents.
Third baseman Kris Bryant and the Colorado Rockies are in agreement on a seven-year, $182 million contract, sources familiar with the deal tell ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 16, 2022
Just imagine what it’s going to be like watching Bryant do his thing at the plate in the batter-friendly altitude of downtown Denver.
Kris Bryant contract details
If it seems like a boatload of money to pay Bryant, it’s because it is.
Bryant has a complete no-trade clause as part of his new deal with the Rockies, which implies that he’s going to be in Colorado for the next seven years. It’s worth mentioning that Nolan Arenado had a no-trade clause in his deal with the Rockies but that didn’t stop him from being traded to the St. Louis Cardinals before that deal expired.
It’s also worth mentioning that trading Arenado last year created the need to sign Bryant this winter.
Bryant played almost his entire career with the Chicago Cubs before being traded away during the team’s fire sale at the deadline last summer. It was a painful divorce, but one that fans on the North Side of Chicago held out hope wouldn’t be permanent.
It appears that hope is dead.
Colorado adding Bryant does a few things, many of which will be broken down as the ripples of the deal stretch across the National League. For starters, the Rockies immediately get better as Bryant is a utility slugger who can play just about anywhere on the diamond and bat almost anywhere in the lineup.
Signing Bryant also means he won’t be playing for the Giants, who traded for him last season with the hopes of adding him to a World Series-winning roster. That didn’t happen, but now Bryant stays in the NL West with a team hoping to copy the success the Giants did by becoming surprise contenders.
This story is breaking news and will be updated as information becomes available.