For all the hand-wringing that came before Kris Bryant even took a major-league at-bat for the Chicago Cubs, his rookie season ended exactly how a lot of people expected it would.
He hit 26 homers, drove in 99 runs and showed every bit of the potential that has him pegged as one of the game's top sluggers for the next decade. He and the Cubs eventually surprised some people and even made the posteason.
On Monday, Bryant added the next logical piece of hardware — the NL Rookie of the Year award. He was the unanimous winner of the award, getting all 30 first-place votes. Matt Duffy of the San Francisco Giants finished second with 22 second-place votes and Jung-Ho Kang of the Pittsburgh Pirates finished third.
It seems like so long ago now, but the early part of Bryant's 2015 season was marred with debate about whether the Cubs should start him at the big-league level or Triple-A. Fiscally, it made sense for Bryant to start in the minors again, because it meant the Cubs could delay his free agency a year. The talent, however, was never a question and Bryant proved that when he arrived in the big leagues.
In MLB's Year of the Rookie, Bryant, 23, was the perhaps the most consistent contributor in baseball. Others showed flashes of young greatness — like Los Angeles Dodgers' outfielder Joc Pederson, who matched Bryant in homers but fell off in the second half. It may have taken Bryant a while to hit his first homer — it came May 9, nearly a month after his April 17 debut — but once that happened, Bryant kept 'em coming all year long.
He showed even more maturity than expected at the plate too, taking walks where they were given to him and ending the season with a .369 on-base percentage. Bryant played the outfield when the Cubs needed him to, despite being a third baseman by trade. And he was one of the big reasons the Cubs won 97 games and clinched the NL's second wild-card spot.
The future is bright for Bryant in Chicago. He didn't need a Rookie of the Year award to validate that. Rather, it's a deserved honor for one of baseball's budding stars and, most likely, it's the first of many trophies that Bryant will win during his MLB career.
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