Chicago Cubs: Kris Bryant’s most unappreciated skill

Chicago Cubs’ third baseman Kris Bryant has bounced back at the plate after an injury-plagued 2018, but some of his biggest contributions are still overlooked.

Inconsistent is one of the nicer words that Chicago Cubs fans would use to describe the team’s 2019 season thus far. Maddening, exasperating, and disheartening all come to mind as well, and of course, that’s leaving off any four-letter words that may be used to spice things up.

Somehow, someway, the Cubs still sit atop the National League Central, despite the continued roller coaster ride. Frustration and confusion about how a team so loaded with talent hasn’t been able to run away with the struggling division has overshadowed just about everything this season, including a resurgent campaign from Kris Bryant.

After injuries hampered Bryant throughout the 2018 season, questions about his ability to produce at his pre-injury levels abounded in the offseason.

Bryant’s critics were vocal early in 2019, as he slashed just .232/.364/.366 through his first 23 games. But in late April, Bryant turned his season around.

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Since April 26th, Bryant’s been better than ever. In 67 games, he’s slashing .313/.417/.606 with 17 home runs.

In fact, Bryant’s hot stretch has raised his overall season numbers to near-career bests. His batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, wOBA, wRC+, and strikeout percentage are all nearly identical to the best numbers he’s put up in any of his previous seasons.

Looking at Bryant’s performance through a wider lens, he’s been one of the best players in baseball.

Bryant’s produced 3.7 fWAR so far this year. That’s good for the eighth-highest total among position players and the third-highest in the National League, trailing only Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich.

While it’s easy to appreciate Bryant for his incredible talent at the plate as well as his positional versatility, there’s one area in which he excels that goes largely unnoticed by Cubs fans and media alike – baserunning.

Without a doubt, Bryant is one of the best baserunners in baseball.

Aside from stolen bases, no traditional baseball metric measures a player’s prowess on the basepaths, so how do we know that?

Fangraphs has a statistic that attempts to produce a number that reveals the value that a player produces when he’s on base. It’s simply called Base Running (BsR) and encompasses stolen bases, caught stealings, and other base running plays like taking extra bases, being thrown out on the bases, going first to third on a single, etc.

Since debuting in 2015, Bryant has the 13th highest BsR of any player.

His placement on the list is even more impressive considering Bryant’s known for his power stroke, not his speed. The list of 12 players ahead of Bryant are nearly all speedsters – Billy Hamilton, Dee Gordon, and Trea Turner are just three of those names.

Of the top 13 ranked players in BsR over the past five seasons, Bryant’s the only one with less than 50 steals. He’s also the only one with a negative Weighted Stolen Base Runs (wSB) rating.

Let’s make it clear just how dominant Bryant is on the basepaths. He has a -2.9 wSB which is one-third of the formula for BsR, yet he is still a good enough base runner that he ranks 13th in baseball since his debut. No one else rated above him has a wSB less than 5.9, and only one other player in the top-20 of BsR also has a negative wSB rating.

There’s only one player that has a higher Base Running score and wOBA than Kris Bryant over that time period – Mike Trout. That’s pretty good company.