With Kris Bryant, Cubs' Maddon puts his worries to rest

Kris Bryant has had himself quite a past few months.

He survived a slip of the foot on some wet sod to record the assist for the final out of the 2016 World Series, giving the Chicago Cubs their first title since 1908.

Shortly after that, he received the National League Most Valuable Player Award, followed by a trip to the White House.

And, oh yes, Bryant got married.

What could possibly be next for the 25-year-old third baseman, who added the MVP to his Rookie of the Year Award from 2015?

The stratosphere seems likely, but you'd never know it watching Bryant at Cubs spring-training camp in Mesa, Arizona.

On mornings early in camp, Bryant would walk out to the cages with a bat resting on his shoulder and a smile on his face as he prepared for the day.

His manager doesn't seem worried about how Bryant is handling things.

"He's done pretty good in college," Joe Maddon said. "He's been pretty good in the minor leagues. He's been pretty good as a rookie. He's been pretty good as a second-year guy. He's so grounded, and that's the only thing. You see, with him the method with which he thinks and the support staff that he has, I'm not concerned.

"My biggest concern is always health. A guy like him, you want to keep him mentally and physically well. And if you can do that, there's no reason he can't continue to actually keep getting better.

"So I don't worry about things like that. There are different things you can do health-wise: Give him a break, give him a rest, have him back off. Those are the things I'm really more concerned with. But he's going to be fine. He handles the day well."

Bryant has handled major-league pitching pretty well, too. Last year he put up a batting line of .292/.385/.554 for an OPS of .939 to go along with 39 home runs and 102 RBI. As a rookie in 2015, his line was .275/.369/.488 with 26 homers and 99 RBI.

Perhaps equally impressive, he cut his strikeout rate from 30.6 percent in 2015 to 22 percent last year, cutting the raw number of Ks from a league-leading 199 in 2015 to 154 last year.

Asked early in spring about his goals for this year, he said he was aiming for improvement in all categories.

"That's just how I've always been," he said. "I love striving to be the best I can be. There's no sense in not doing that."

A third baseman by trade, Bryant saw action last year at all three outfield positions (60 games in left field) in addition to 9 games at first base and 1 at shortstop. He was asked if he's likely to see more action at third base this season at the expense of other spots.

"I don't care; I don't care at all," he said. "I don't know, but it does kind of seem like I'll be playing more third this year, but to me it's never mattered where I play, I've told you guys day in and day out. I like moving around. It's fun for me. It keeps me fresh. I'm ready for it. I've got all my gloves here."

He also doesn't seem worried about heightened expectations, either for himself or the team.

"Doing what we did last year and winning the whole thing, it just makes us want to go through it all over again," he said. "Playing in a Game 7, that's the most stressful game you can probably play in sports. I think all our nerves heading into this year are pretty calm knowing that we played in one of the most stressful games in the history of the game. I think we'll be fine. But there's definitely no complacency here."

Some Cubs said they haven't watched highlights or the documentary about the 2016 World Series. Not so Bryant.

"I've seen the movie," he said. "I'll be watching that for the rest of my life. It's crazy, some of the work they put together to make these cool movies. Yeah, they really captured just how our season was and how fun it was. We'll be able to draw on those games throughout the whole year when things aren't going too good, which are probably going to happen at some point. Yeah, I've watched a lot of the playoffs.

"It's a good thing. When you're doing a lot of things like I've been doing, it's all good stuff. There's never going to be any complaint out of my mouth from what I've done. I've accomplished a lot so far, and I'm so thankful for it. I'll never complain here."

• Follow Bruce on Twitter at @BruceMiles2112.