Kris Bryant has been the NL's Rookie of the Year thus far

The National League Rookie of the Year award race isn't as clear cut as everyone thought it would be coming into the season. 

Kris Bryant, Matt Duffy, Maikel Franco, Jung-ho Kang,  Joc Pederson, and Noah Syndergaard have all been thrown as more-than-deserving candidates and rightly so. 

But as much as everyone talks about Kang, Grichuk, Syndergaard, and the others, the best rookie in the Senior Circuit has in fact been Kris Bryant, the third baseman who was favorited to win the award coming into the year. 

Bryant leads all rookies in fWAR with a 3.9 mark.

While his offense hasn't quite been what people expected, Bryant has been just fine there. Bryant's .249 batting average and 30.3 strikeout rate has caused him no longer be the unanimous top choice, but his 124 wRC+ (wins created plus) ranks seventh among rookies. This means that Bryant is 24 percent better than league average at creating runs, adjusted for park- and league-factors. 

However, what really sets Bryant apart from the rest of the pack is the completeness in his game. 

This is almost ironic, considering the Cubs kept him down in the minor leagues for the first two weeks of the season to work on his "defense," but in all reality, amongst the top seven NL rookies in wRC+, Bryant is the best defender through FanGraphs' overall defensive rating.

Not only is Bryant much better than expected defensively, but he also leads the 2015 NL Rookie Class in base running runs above average, adding six runs through solid base running. His surprising speed (11 stolen bases), combined with his smarts, make him 2.5 runs more valuable than the next best rookie (Duffy). 

It might not be his bat that wins him the award, but Kris Bryant is still the best rookie in the National League this season. He is the best overall player and will be exciting to watch for years to come.

--Devan Fink