Kris Bryant has had his once-sterling career derailed by a laundry list of injuries since signing a seven-year, $182 million contract with the Colorado Rockies ahead of the 2022 season. The former NL MVP played just 159 games over the first three years of that deal, dogged by everything from plantar fasciitis to heel issues to a broken finger.
But his most recent health problem is by far the most significant. Bryant has appeared in just 11 games for the Rockies this season, hampered by what doctors have deemed a degenerative back condition. It's been a very difficult stretch for a still-proud player: This is a man who was once the hottest prospect in the entire sport, the prodigy who led the Chicago Cubs to their first championship in over a century. He's desperate to get back on the field and not only live up to his salary, but remind everyone of just what he can do.
"I want to be on the field. I want to play the game. I want to talk to doctors, see if there's anything else we can do," Bryant told reporters last month. "But I'm not gonna give up."
Now, he's putting that motto into practice. Bryant's road to recovery has taken its most extreme step yet, one that proves just how dedicated he is to playing big-league baseball again.
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Kris Bryant getting desperate in effort to overcome back issues
On Wednesday, Bryant announced that he'd be flying to Los Angeles to undergo an ablation procedure on his back. He described it as a "pretty intense" operation, but frankly, that seems like an understatement: It involves trying to kill the nerves that connect from the vertebrae to the bones in his back, in an effort to ease his chronic pain.
The procedure was finally recommended after more conservative courses of treatment were unsuccessful, and Bryant's pain remained debilitating.
"I get through two at-bats and then I get to the third at-bat and I'm like, 'Oh, this isn't good,'" Bryant has said. "And then the fourth at-bat, I'm like, 'I just got to get this at-bat over within the first couple of swings.' ... Then the next day you get up and it's like, 'I can't move.'"
At this point, he's willing to try anything, both to continue his career and improve his quality of life.
“I just told them, I want to do everything I can," he said. "So let’s do this. Let’s do that. I’m good. Just keep putting needles and knives in my back. I’m OK with it. So I’ve had a lot of needles in my back the last two weeks.”
Obviously Bryant's stint with the Rockies has been a frustrating one for fans. But this is very far from an Anthony Rendon situation; no one wants to be on the field helping his team more than Bryant does, and he's clearly not choosing to be in agonizing pain on a regular basis. The body that once carried him to stardom has begun to fail him, but you have to respect his willingness to continue fighting anyway.