SF Giants continue to look genius for not retaining oft-injured former MVP

The SF Giants decided to not bring Kris Bryant back after they traded for him during the 2021 season. That move looks even more genius now as Bryant is set to undergo surgery and will miss even more time.

Bryant has been absolutely cursed by injury ever since he signed a seven-year, $182 million contract with the Colorado Rockies following the 2021 season. Since 2022, he has played in 170 games for Colorado while slashing .244/.324/.370 with 17 home runs and 61 RBI. He was slashing .154/.195/.205 in eleven games this season before he went on the IL with a back issue.

SF Giants look genius for not signing Kris Bryant

Now he is going to, "undergo an ablation procedure Thursday to help aid in his recovery from a lumbar degenerative disc disease," per Thomas Harding of MLB.com which sounds...less than ideal, to say the least.

We will have to see how much time Bryant misses, but the fact that his injury woes have continued into 2025 provides even more evidence that the Giants were wise to steer clear of him when he was a free agent.

The 2016 National League MVP played pretty well when he was a Giant. After the team acquired him from the Chicago Cubs, he slashed .262/.344/.444 with seven homers and 22 RBI and helped the team win the National League West over the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also played well in the NLDS against the Dodgers, recording eight hits in the five-game series.

The Giants clearly won the trade with the Cubs. The main prospect the Giants gave up to get Bryant, Alexander Canario, was designated for assignment by Chicago earlier this year. The Giants were seemingly able to squeeze the last decent baseball out of Bryant before his career truly went downhill.

He will at least have a hefty contract to console him and he can come back to Chicago and sign autographs for $50 a pop until his hand falls off if money ever gets tight.

Still, the Giants should be supremely grateful they did not give Bryant a huge contract following the 2021 season. It would have been easy to overreact to Buster Posey's retirement by signing a player with high name recognition to a huge contract, yet Farhan Zaidi's reticence to give out big contracts, likely based on orders from ownership, proved to be very prudent.

We will see if Bryant can eventually get healthy and turn things around, but at this stage it is abundantly clear that the Giants were wise to stay far away from Bryant following the 2021 season.