Thursday, March 28

Rockies’ Kris Bryant progressing toward return from back issue


Kris Bryant is trending in a positive direction toward a future return to the Rockies lineup.

The injured Colorado left fielder, after receiving a lower-back cortisone shot on Monday, joined teammates in pregame warmups on Friday with the Kansas City Royals visiting Coors Field.

That included a few swings in the batting cage, according to manager Bud Black, after Bryant refrained from taking cuts the last two weeks.

“He threw today, he ran around and he hit in the cage. No problems,” manager Bud Black said. “So, that’s a good sign. He’ll do that again tomorrow with a little bit more activity. Increase the intensity. Probably increase the number of swings as well. Probably go out and play some defense. … Probably do a little bit of that on Sunday morning as well. Then we’ll assess where he is. But it’s a good sign that he’s back on the field. That he’s doing all baseball activities.”

Bryant — signed to a seven-year, $182 million free-agent deal in March — last played for the Rockies on April 25 at Philadelphia. Bryant landed on the injured list while batting .281 with 16 hits, 11 runs and four RBIs over 15 games.

Bryant recently told The Post that his back injury “is more than just a (pulled) muscle, it’s deeper than that.” But his health had improved as of Friday afternoon.

“I’ve been through this … obviously, in Chicago being on the injured list a couple of times and not feeling great about it,” Bryant told reporters. “But it just happens. It’s part of the game. You’ve got to deal with it as they come and, hopefully, you find ways and routines to make sure that it doesn’t happen again and limit the flareups. Make sure my body is feeling right.”

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Bryant is expected to play in one or two rehab games with Triple-A Albuquerque to get his timing back before making a return to play for Colorado.

“I would expect (a rehab assignment),” Black said. “That should happen.”



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