Colorado Rockies: Is Kris Bryant better than Trevor Story?

This offseason, the Colorado Rockies, essentially, replaced the bat of Trevor Story with Kris Bryant. Bryant doesn’t play shortstop so he’s not the direct replacement for Story there and he’s not as good as Story at any position defensively but in their lineup, Bryant is actually slightly better than Story.

So, in theory, they are about equal … and MLB Network agrees.

MLB Network started their list of the Top 100 MLB Players Right Now on Monday. They started with players ranked from no. 100 through 81 (which included former Rockies infielder DJ LeMahieu at #94) on Monday and no. 80 through 61 on Tuesday.

That list included both Kris Bryant and Trevor Story but who got the upper hand? That would be Kris Bryant.

MLB Network believes that Kris Bryant is better than Trevor Story

MLB Network ranked new Colorado Rockies left fielder Kris Bryant slightly higher than Trevor Story on their list of the Top 100 Players Right Now.

Bryant was ranked as the 66th-best player in the sport right now whereas Story was ranked as the 69th-best player on the list.

For the list, MLB Network considers each player’s stats in the past three seasons and then their future to get the results. In 2021, Story was all the way up at no. 16 so he tumbled down more than 50 spots.

That was because of his (relatively) weak 2021 season. In each of the previous three seasons entering 2021, Story had an OPS+ of 127, 120, and 120. He also had an rWAR of 6.2, 6.9, and 2.5, which were 5th, 5th, and 9th in the NL. His rWAR in 2021 was only 4.2, which was a 39 percent decrease from his 2019 WAR (his WAR in the last full season in baseball).

For Kris Bryant, he also dropped down in the list as well but only four places as he was ranked at no. 62 entering 2021.

He had his big drop last year since he was injured and saw his production plummet in 2020. Entering 2020, he was ranked as the 34th-best player in baseball.

So, as of now, Kris Bryant has the edge over Trevor Story but if both are healthy, Story may have the edge on Bryant overall but Bryant may still have the edge as a hitter.