Kris Bryant Sprains Ankle, May Avoid DL
On a seemingly harmless play against the Washington Nationals Tuesday night, Kris Bryant caught a popup just to the right of third base and rolled his right ankle. The reigning MVP was initially able to hop around on the tender extremity, but was quickly met by Cubs trainers, who told him to stop moving. Trainers — and for a brief time Joe Maddon — carried the third baseman off into the dugout and down the stairs to the training room.
Kris Bryant just left the game in the 5th after rolling his ankle…on third base. #Cubs pic.twitter.com/Q6MEPv2L60
— 120 Sports (@120Sports) June 29, 2017
Cubs Twitter collectively held its breath for the remainder of the game.
Immediately after the 8-4 loss to the Nationals, the Cubs told the Chicago media that Bryant’s x-rays had come back negative, but that he has a “mild to moderate” ankle sprain and a decision on putting the lanky slugger on the DL hasn’t been made.
Mild to moderate right ankle sprain for Bryant, x-rays came back negative. No word on DL yet.
— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) June 29, 2017
We’ll know more before tomorrow’s game, but considering the alternative is a broken ankle and a spiraling decline into the abyss of MLB, I’m relatively happy with the news. Of course, we don’t know how long he’ll be out, but it looks as if KB avoided missing significant time.