Red Sox: Trevor Story isn’t the only free agent struggling with a new team
By Sean Penney
Kris Bryant wouldn’t give the Red Sox the power boost they expect
Kris Bryant received arguably the most surprising free-agent deal from this class. He proved to be one of last summer’s best trade deadline acquisitions, smashing seven homers and driving in 22 RBI down the stretch to help the San Francisco Giants secure the NL West. We expected that to earn him a hefty contract, we just never predicted it would come from the Colorado Rockies.
After trading away Nolan Arenado and making half-hearted efforts to re-sign Story, it appeared the Rockies were transitioning into a rebuild phase in recent years. Then they shocked the world by spending $182 million on a seven year deal for a 30-year-old Bryant despite that they still appear to be years away from contending.
Bryant enters the day hitting .281 but there hasn’t been much punch to that batting average. He still hasn’t collected his first home run despite benefiting from the thin air in Colorado and his four doubles are his only extra-base hits.
The batting average is respectable but his .338 on-base percentage would be the worst of his career if we ignore the dismal shortened 2020 season. His .351 slugging percentage would tie 2020 for the worst of his career and represents a drastic drop from his career .501 SLG. Bryant’s 4.3 Barrel%, 83.3 average exit velocity and 25.5 Hard Hit% are all steep declines.
The Red Sox have been criticized for signing Story under the assumption that his power would evaporate outside of hitter-friendly Coors Field. However, Bryant is the one with the more concerning power outage when switching from a pitcher’s park in San Francisco to the hitter’s haven in Colorado.