Chicago Cubs: How Kris Bryant redefines value

Unless the Chicago Cubs begin winning more regularly – or unless he’s traded to one that does – Kris Bryant probably won’t be a front-runner for National League Most Valuable Player in 2021. But he ought to be.

In the broadest definition of the term, it would be hard to imagine any player with as much value – at least to his manager – as Bryant has right now to the Cubs and manager David Ross.

Kris Bryant showing value for Chicago Cubs

He’s helping Chicago with his bat. But perhaps as importantly, he’s played an immeasurable role with his positional versatility.

Bryant demonstrated the importance of that talent again Wednesday night when the Cubs took on the Washington Nationals.

Although we think of Bryant as a third baseman, he began the game at first base as a replacement for Anthony Rizzo, who was sidelined with a sore back.

Then five innings into the game, when Jason Heyward‘s injury left the Cubs with no experienced outfielders on their bench, Ross filled that gap by moving Bryant to right field.

MVP candidates are generally measured by their offensive productivity. Bryant stacks up well in that department. At 2.2, he’s first in the NL in Offensive WAR, and he’s also first in Situational Wins Added at 1.4. With a 185 OPS, he’s also first among qualified hitters in that category.

But his offense is far from the most important aspect of the 2016 MVP’s value. In these days of benches stripped to the bone by the combination of injuries and heavily populated bullpens, among a player’s most valuable traits is positional versatility. That’s what allows a manager to make in-game moves he might otherwise be unable to make if his options were limited to one infielder, one outfielder, and a backup catcher.

It is likely that no current player fills that aspect of value like Bryant.

Ironically, if all you did was glance at the team’s depth chart, you might deduce that Bryant’s not even a regular. He’s not listed as a first-stringer at any position.  But he is a second or third option at five of them.

Through his team’s first 42 games – of which Bryant had played the field in 39 – his positional spread was as follows: Third base: 15, left field: 14, center field: 8, right field: 8, first Base: 3.

In one quarter of his games, Bryant did not finish the game at the position he started. Five times he’s played both infield and outfield positions.

A look at the other players with big offensive numbers illustrates how rare Bryant’s versatility is. The table below lists the top eight National Leaguers in WAR entering play Wednesday. In addition to their WAR, it shows the number of positions they’ve played, their most frequently played position, and the percentage of their starts that have come at that most frequent position.

Player, team                  WAR     Posits.    Most     Percent

Max Muncy, LA               2.3        two           1b            75

Nick Castellanos, Cin.    2.1        one            rf          100

Carson Kelly, Ari.            2.1         one           c            100

Jason Turner, LA,            2.0         one           3b         100

Jake Cronenworth, SD  2.0         three        2b            81

Nolan Arenado, Stl.      1.9          one           3b         100

Brandon Crawford, SF 1.9         one            ss         100

Kris Bryant, Chc,           1.9          five           3b            31

The changing nature of baseball rosters makes positional versatility an important commodity on a big league team. But when you combine that versatility with exceptional on-field performance, you have three-dimensional value. Nobody this side of Shohei Ohtani personifies that kind of value the way that Kris Bryant does.