When will Kris Bryant return to Rockies lineup this season?

The Colorado Rockies signed Kris Bryant to a surprising seven-year, $182 million contract in March. And the beginning of that marriage has not contained many happy moments. Besides below-average production in 14 games on the field, Bryant has been on the injured list twice due to back injuries. However, his latest IL stint, beginning May 25, could be nearing its conclusion. Here is the latest.

Kris Bryant injury update

Bryant was initially placed on the IL on April 26 due to a back injury. He then returned on May 21, only to go back on the injured list a few days later. Now, another month later, Bryant is ready to go on another rehab assignment. It will begin Tuesday at Triple-A and the team is projecting that Bryant will return to the majors at some point during their road series versus the Twins this weekend. The Rockies will welcome Bryant back with open arms, but there’s no denying that the former NL MVP has been terrible through just 63 at-bats this year. He has no home runs, a .676 OPS, and batted-ball metrics that are the worst of his career by far. It’s unclear how much of that is due to his back, bad luck, and/or the fact that Bryant is past his physical prime in his age-30 season.

Connor Joe and Yonathan Daza have gotten the majority of the starts in left field in place of Bryant. Both will remain in the lineup somewhere when he returns, although Joe has been in a slump for nearly a month, batting .242 with one homer and a .682 OPS over his past 24 games. And that’s despite a rather hefty .333 batting average on balls in play during that span. Daza is hitting .331, the sixth-best mark in MLB among hitters with at least 150 plate appearances. But he is purely a singles hitter (only eight of his 55 hits have gone for extra bases) and is 0-for-3 in stolen base attempts.