Welcome to the 2026 edition of Ranking the Rockies, where we take a look back at every player to log playing time for the Rockies in 2025. The purpose of this list is to provide a snapshot of the player in context. The “Ranking” is an organizing principle that’s drawn from Baseball Reference’s WAR (rWAR). It’s not something the staff debated. We’ll begin with the player with the lowest rWAR and end up with the player with the highest.
Honorable Mention: Kris Bryant (N/A rWAR)
It seems like a lifetime ago that the Colorado Rockies held a press conference in early spring training in 2022 to announce that they had signed former MVP and World Series champion Kris Bryant to a seven-year, $182 million contract.
After Nolan Arenado’s public divorce from the club a year earlier, Rockies owner Dick Monfort wanted star power. So once the Collective Bargaining Agreement was ratified and baseball was able to resume after the lockout, he made a splash and helped orchestrate the signing of Bryant.
While plenty of skeptics and red flags surrounded the signing, there was at least some optimism that Bryant could help bring a winning culture to the Rockies and provide the clubhouse leadership this team desperately needed.
The sad reality is that the signing has been a disaster, as Bryant’s body betrayed him, and injuries rendered him a shell of his former self.
Over four seasons with the Rockies, when he was actually able to suit up, Bryant has played just 170 games, worth -1.6 rWAR. In 2025, he managed to play just 11 games before the lumbar degenerative disk disease he was diagnosed with in 2024 made it too difficult to play, and he landed on the 60-day injured list.
2026 was the first year in which Bryant did not play a single game of baseball in his professional career. It didn’t take long for him to land on the 60-day IL as the Rockies placed him on the IL the first chance they got when such roster moves could be made in spring training. Bryant reported to camp when full-squad workouts began, but it was simply to make an appearance, get his physical, and check in with the team before heading back home to work with doctors.
In the past, Bryant was at least on our minds throughout the season as he would occasionally pop up in the dugout and talk to the media once or twice during the regular season. This year, Bryant talked to the media while he was in camp, and made an appearance in the dugout when the Rockies played in Las Vegas in June, but we otherwise haven’t heard much from him. The message we did receive back in February was not a hopeful one.
His message was simply about the pain he has been dealing with as a result of the back issues. There was also a clear subtext of his frustration about his physical well-being and inability to play baseball.
“Any time my feet hit the ground, I feel like I could probably fall over,” Bryant said to the media. “It’s unfortunate and obviously not how I want this to go. I’m here to figure things out and find out if there is a way to get better.
“I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”
He then went on to share about his path forward heading into the start of spring training and the reality that little to no progress has been made to get back on the field any time soon.
“Usually in the progression you start with the exercises, then you move to running,” Bryant said. “Any time my feet hit the ground, I just feel like I could probably fall over.
“I don’t really have the best answer for [returning to the field], because I haven’t really determined a plan, but I just am following advice and [the trainer’s] guidance, and obviously meeting with doctors. I met with doctors in the offseason, just to get opinions. They pass them on to the training staff, and then we determine how we go.”
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The reality of not having Bryant for the season was not a surprise for manager Warren Schaeffer and the new front office, and the best path forward was to plan that he wasn’t going to be part of the equation at all.
“There’s really not much to say about it other than the guy’s back really hurts, and he’s having a tough time progressing,” Schaeffer said. “We have to prepare like he’s not going to play. That’s just the way we have to go about it, hoping that he has a recovery and a breakthrough. But as of now, his back really, really hurts. It’s a real thing. He just can’t play baseball.”
If Bryant is physically unable to play baseball, what’s the next step? At the time of his interview, he skirted around the question of retirement, instead holding onto hope a solution could be found.
“I honestly try not to let myself get there, because when you’re going through it every single day, you just try to make it day to day,” he said. “A lot of people out there with chronic pain, you don’t want to think so far in the future because you’re just trying to get through the day. So I haven’t let myself get there.”
But that was six months ago, and change happens.
There are still two years and $54 million of guaranteed money left on Bryant’s contract. Any sort of solution to rectify the situation is a tough puzzle to solve, especially now with a ticking clock of roughly 30 days before the offseason begins and Bryant would have to be added back onto the 40-man roster.
The simplest answer is that the Rockies take the hit and pay him the full amount left on his contract, and he retires or is released, much like the Denver Broncos did with Russell Wilson. That parallel became more of a reality when the Penner Sports Group bought a 40% ownership stake in the club last April, bringing an influx of cash to help pay off debts for the club.
The more likely alternative that would make the most sense is that the Rockies work with Bryant and his agent, Scott Boras, on restructuring the deal to defer the remaining $56 million over several years. The Los Angeles Angels did that very thing with oft-injured Anthony Rendón in January, spreading out the $38 million he was owed this season over the next three-to-five years.
While there has been no news on the Kris Bryant front this season, there is no doubt in my mind that Paul DePodesta and Josh Byrnes have been looking into a solution to bring this disastrous union to a close.
After five years, it’s time to put this chapter of Rockies history in the rearview mirror.
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