Former world champion Cubs' core falling flat with new teams after 2021 departures

Kris Bryant has been decimated by injuries with the Colorado Rockies

Minor League Player of the Year. Rookie of the Year. MVP. World Series champion. Four-time All-Star. Kris Bryant had 'future Hall of Famer' written all over him early on in his career, especially coming off that 2016 campaign that had us all dreaming of a Cubs dynasty.

With the exception of a poor showing in 2020, Bryant was a solidly above-average offensive producer year in and year out, posting a 133 OPS+ over seven years on the North Side. As we all know, the Cubs wound up shipping him to the Giants at the trade deadline in 2021 in exchange for Alexander Canario and Caleb Kilian.

He finished out the 2021 campaign in San Francisco and then wound up signing in what felt like the unlikeliest of places: Colorado. The Rockies gave him a staggering seven-year, $182 million contract that, already, looks like one of the biggest free agent busts of all-time.

Instead of putting up video game-level numbers, Bryant has hardly been on the field and, even when he's played, he's looked like a shell of his former self. In three years in Denver, he's yet to play even a full half-season as injury after injury has decimated his once-promising career.

The biggest missing piece for Bryant, apart from simply staying on the field, has been the power stroke that made him one of the game's biggest names during his time in Chicago. He's slugged just .381 with the Rockies, with only 17 home runs in 159 games. Colorado expected more for their investment but, at this point, there are few signs of things turning around for the former first-rounder.