It’s pretty hard to live up to the hype that surrounded Kris Bryant by the time the 2017 season dawned. He came up early in 2015 without missing a beat, leading the Chicago Cubs to an improbable run to the NLCS in a Rookie of the Year campaign.
Bryant followed up that performance by not only taking home NL MVP honors in 2016, but helping erase a century-plus championship drought in Wrigleyville.
You literally cannot set the bar higher than it was set for the Cubs’ 2013 first-round pick. He ascended to the top of the mountain quicker than almost any player before him and in the wake of all that greatness, fans somehow expected more out of the slugger.