Kris Bryant is headed to injured list — again

Kris Bryant landing on the injured list has become another rite of a Colorado spring and summer. And now, the $182-million man of the Colorado Rockies is headed there again.

After missing the previous three games due to back stiffness, the Rockies finally placed the slugger on the injured list Wednesday. The team called up Sean Bouchard from AAA Albuquerque to take his place on the 25-man roster.

The Rockies pulled Kris Bryant from the lineup during the April 13 game in Toronto due to back stiffness that set in after he collided with the right-field wall while making a catch in the second inning. Bryant remained in that game through the top of the fourth inning, striking out before Bud Black pulled him.

Seven days earlier, Black gave Bryant a day off against Tampa Bay due to back tightness. Bryant returned to the lineup the following day as the designated hitter.

“We don’t want to pick a scab here,” Black said at the time. “Let’s get it feeling better.”

Bryant was out of the lineup for the April 14 series finale in Toronto and the first two games of the Colorado Rockies’ ongoing series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

But because the Rockies didn’t place him on the injured list after the Saturday diagnosis of back tightness, they were forced to use Kyle Freeland a pinch runner late in Monday night’s loss at Philadelphia. Their bench was short-handed with Bryant injured and second baseman Brendan Rodger and reserve outfielder Jake Cave both sick and unavailable.

Freeland barely avoided a significant injury to his right, non-throwing shoulder on a home-plate collision in his pinch-running work.

Wednesday’s series finale in Philadelphia will represent Bryant’s fifth missed game so far this season. He missed 202 of a possible 324 games in the first two seasons of his seven-year Rockies contract.

With a .149 average and a .528 OPS so far this season, Kris Bryant carries a negative WAR — minus-0.4, including minus-0.3 at the plate and minus-0.1 on defense — according to baseball-reference.com.

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