Despite the fact that he was drafted less than a calendar year ago, Kris Bryant is dominating arguably the toughest level of the minor leagues, and could be knocking on the door to the big leagues very soon.

The Chicago Cubs drafted Bryant with the 2nd overall pick of the 2013 First-Year Player Draft. He is a big-time power hitter who has dominated at every level of competition he has been. Last season, in his short time after signing with the Cubs, Bryant hit .336/.390/.688 with 9 homeruns in only 128 at-bats. He reached the High-A level by the end of the season, and continued to dominate, which is very impressive for a player who had just been drafted that season.

The Cubs sent Bryant to the Arizona Fall League this offseason, where he continued to turn heads. The AFL is a league where teams send their prospects to get a little work in during the offseason. It is commonly loaded with top level prospect talent, so the fact that Bryant dominated the league is impressive. In 20 games playing for the Mesa Solar Sox, Bryant posted a .364 batting average with six homeruns, eight doubles, and 17 RBI. Bryant ripped the ball all over the place, putting up a .727 slugging percentage, and took home the AFL MVP award. This propelled him near the top of prospect list heading into the season.

After a short, yet successful stay with the big league club in Spring Training, the Cubs sent Bryant to Double-A to start this season. This was an aggressive promotion, as the Cubs look to challenge Bryant, who has simply dominated at every stop of his career thus far.

At 22-years-old, Bryant is very young for the Double-A level, but he is still continuing his dominant ways. Through 48 games this season, Bryant leads the Southern League in slugging percentage and OPS by a wide margin at .624 and 1.049 respectively, hits, runs scored, homeruns with 13, and total bases with 111. His average of .339 is second in the league, and only seven points behind the leader, his 42 RBI is only one behind the leader, and his .425 OBP is also second in the league.

Bryant’s continued emergence at Double-A has him being mentioned with some of the best prospects in all of baseball. While the major league team has its obvious issues, the Cubs have a bright future ahead of them led by their incredible minor league system. Bryant is a huge part of their system, and appears to be a perennial All-Star in waiting.

With his dominance at Double-A this season, whispers about a promotion have been circling. While it is usually best to take your time, and let a prospect grow slowly and naturally, there is also a point where not challenging him stunts his growth. Even though he is one of the youngest players at the level, I think it is fair to question whether Bryant is being challenged. Leading the league in almost every single major offensive category is incredibly impressive, but also makes you think he has outgrown the league.

When asked about a possible Triple-A promotion of Bryant, Hoyer told the Chicago Tribune, “Right now, it’s not something that we’ve talked about.” Hoyer also said that it is important to “give him a little bit of stability.” While that is certainly true, there becomes a point where Bryant will force the Cubs to promote him. If he continues to dominate pitching at this level, keeping him down will do more harm than good.

With a possible Triple-A promotion in his near future, expect to see Bryant in the big leagues sometime next season. He is an impressive power hitter who has an incredibly bright future ahead of him. Everyone keeps waiting for him to struggle, but it simply has not happened yet. Maybe it never will.