The Cubs made it official Friday morning. The Cubs selected the contract of Kris Bryant from Triple-A Iowa. Bryant was added to the team’s 40-man roster and activated for Friday’s game.
With the addition of Kris Bryant, the Cubs’ 40-man roster currently stands at 40 players.
INF Mike Olt was placed on the 15-day DL with a hairline fracture in his right wrist. Olt saw a hand specialist Thursday after the discomfort continued in his wrist throughout the week. Olt is expected to be in a cast for three weeks. Olt will resume baseball activities at that time barring any setbacks.
Mike Olt, 26, is hitting .133 (2-for-15) with one homer and one RBI in six games for the Cubs this season.
During Friday’s press conference, Theo Epstein said the injury to Mike Olt changed the timing on calling up Kris Bryant. The Cubs would have preferred for Bryant to make his debut on the road. The needs of the big league team outweighed the front office’s plans for Kris Bryant.
Kris Bryant will wear No. 17 for the Chicago Cubs.
Kris Bryant, 23, joins the Cubs after hitting .321 (9-for-28) with three homers and 10 RBI in seven games with Iowa. He was Chicago’s first round pick in the 2013 Draft (second overall) and entered 2015 ranked as the number one prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America. He earned 2014 Minor League Player of the Year honors from Baseball America, USA Today and the Cubs after hitting .325 (160-for-492) and leading the minors with 43 homers, 78 extra-base hits, 325 total bases, a .661 slugging mark and a 1.098 OPS while ranking third with 110 RBI between Double-A Tennessee and Iowa.
After being selected by the Cubs out of the University of San Diego, Bryant combined to hit .336 (43-for-128) with 14 doubles, two triples and nine homers in 36 games across three minor league levels that summer, culminating with a 2013 Florida State League Championship and 2013 Arizona Fall League Joe Black MVP honors after leading the league with six homers, a .457 slugging percentage and 56 total bases.
Bryant began the 2014 campaign with his first stop at Double-A and batted .355 (88-for-248) with 22 homers and 58 RBI in 68 games with Tennessee to earn a spot on the Southern League All-Star team and a promotion to Triple-A on June 19, just a little more than a year after he was drafted. He batted .295 (72-for-244) with 21 homers and 52 RBI in 70 games with Iowa. Bryant also started at third base for the U.S Team at the All-Star Futures game in Minnesota. Overall, Bryant has turned in a .327 batting average (212-for-648) with 55 homers and 152 RBI in 181 minor league games.
As a junior at San Diego, the 6-foot-5, 215-pound Bryant won the 2013 USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award, was the Baseball America Player of the Year, the 2013 Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Year and the 2013 Louisville Slugger National Player of the Year. Bryant is a native of Las Vegas and a graduate of Bonanza High School.