Dan Gaken/Via Flickr.com

What Will Kris Bryant Do Next?

Kris Bryant is coming off of a dream season. It makes you wonder, what is there left for him to do?

Sometimes you have to wonder if Kris Bryant ever gets tired of accepting all these awards. All the fan fare and praise being thrown ones way would surely get old. Right?

When it comes to winning awards, it’s hard to find a player that knows how to do that as well as Bryant has.

The Early Years

Bryant, a native of Las Vegas, Nevada, played his high school days for Bonanza High School. He played for the Varsity baseball team all four years of school, where he recorded a .418 batting average, a .958 slugging percentage, 103 hits. Not to mention a whopping 47 career home runs.

The summer of his Senior year he played American Legion ball and continued to impress. He was named to USA’s Today All-USA baseball first-team. In 2010 the Toronto Blue Jays took Bryant in the 18th round, but fortunately for Cub fans Bryant enrolled at the University of San Diego.

Kris Bryant attended the University of San Diego, where he played his college career for the San Diego Toreros. While at the University he made it known that he was someone who was continuing to improve.

College Years

KB playing in the Cape Code Summer league for the Chatham Anglers- Chatham Anglers/via Flickr.com

As a freshman Bryant posted a .365 batting average, a .482 on-base percentage, and a .599 slugging percentage, with 9 home runs. Bryant was named freshman All-American and the West Coast Conference Co-Freshman of the year and Co-Player of the year.

He continued his success into his sophomore year in 2012. He was named a First Team All-American by Baseball America and later that summer was chosen to play for the USA Collegiate National team.

In his Junior year he finally showed those power numbers that everyone had heard about. Bryant hit 31 home runs, leading the nation in home runs. The 31 home runs were the most by any player since 2011 when the NCAA switched to Composite bats. His 31 home runs were also more than 223 of the 296 Division I teams hit in the entire season.

In Bryant’s 2013 college season he took home the Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Trophy which is given to the top collegiate player in the nation. As if that wasn’t enough, he was also named to the Louisville Slugger First Team All-American team and College Baseball News named him their National Player of the year.

At the end of his 2013 college season Bryant was being looked at by the Houston Astros who had the number one pick in the Major League Baseball draft. Again, luck paid off for the Chicago Cubs when the Astros went in a different direction and went with right handed starter Mark Appel with their first pick. Sitting in the number two spot in the draft were the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs selected Bryant with the second pick and signed him to a $6.7 million signing bonus.

Minor Leagues

Photo taken during his time in Daytona- Tivo_epaper/via Flickr

Bryant would cruise through the Cubs Minor League system rather quickly. He began with the Boise Hawks and batted .354 with 4 home runs. He then received a promotion to the Daytona Cubs of the Class-A-Advanced Florida State League. He hit .333 for Daytona with 5 home runs and helped them win the Class-A Advanced league championship. After the Advanced League season ended he continued in the Arizona Fall League where he was named the MVP of the League with a .364 average and six more home runs in just 20 games played.

In 2014 Bryant started the season with the Double-A affiliate of the Cubs, the Tennessee Smokies. Again more accolades were heading his way. In June he competed in the Southern League home run derby which he won and was named to the All-Star team of the league. Shortly after the Southern League All-Star game Bryant was promoted again to the Iowa Cubs, which is the Chicago Cubs Triple-A affiliate.

After just 68 games in Triple-A and a .355 average and 22 home runs, Bryant was ranked as the best prospect in baseball by Keith Laws mid-season top prospect report. At the end of the season he was named the USA Today Minor League Player of the Year and won the home run award.

The Show

Travis/ via Flickr

On April 17, 2015, Bryant would finally get the call he had waited on. He made his début at Wrigley Field against the San Diego Padres. Bryant would hold off on the power through the month of April, but did hit .318 in his first month in the Big Leagues. Bryant would state his case as the future of the Chicago Cubs by batting .265, 7 home runs, 22 RBI, and 16 walks and received the award for NL Rookie of the Month for the month of May. Bryant would end his Rookie Season adding to the many awards he had already received.

After hitting the most home runs by any Cub rookie ever with 26 and the most RBI with 99 he was named the National League Rookie of the Year for the 2015 season. Bryant was also named Baseball America’s Rookie of the year for the 2015 season making him the first player in history to win the Baseball America college player, minor league player, and Major league rookie of the year.

Awards-Awards & More Awards

KB accepting MVP- Arturro Padavilla/ via Flickr.com

When it comes to winning awards it would be hard to find anyone with a list as impressive as this one.

-2x College Baseball All-American (2012, 2013)

-Dick Howser Trophy (2013)

-Golden Spikes Award (2013)

-Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year (2014)

-Baseball America Rookie of the Year (2015)

-National League Rookie of the Year (2015)

-National League Hank Aaron Award (2016)

-National League Most Valuable Player Award (2016)

And most importantly for all Cubs fans everywhere, World Series Champ (2016)

History

To put in perspective what he has been able to accomplish let’s take a look at where he lands historically with these awards.

With his 2016 MVP award he became only the third player ever to win the Collegiate Golden Spikes Award, Rookie of the Year Award and a League MVP award. He joined Bryce Harper and Buster Posey as the only 3 to accomplish this feat.

With the MVP Award he became just the 4th player to win ROY and MVP awards in back-to-back seasons (Cal Ripken, Ryan Howard and Dustin Pedroia).

Bryant is also about as versatile of a star as we have seen in a long time. His primary position is 3rd base, but during the 2016 World Series run he played at least one inning at 5 other positions. He played at first base, left field, right field, center field, and shortstop.

So I will ask again. What will Kris Bryant do next?

Maybe the better question is, what can’t Kris Bryant do next?

*References:

Craig House never forgave his parents for making his middle name Ryan and not Ryne. How could they? House can be found on twitter here.