Sure, Kris Bryant, the No. 1 prospect in baseball still is a bit rough around the edges as all young players are. But it’s pretty clear the budding Chicago Cubs star is ready to make the big league roster out of spring training.
The only problem? He’s likely to be sent back to the minor leagues and it’s namely because of politics, not his play.
Statistically Kris Bryant is ready to play baseball at the Major League level, but awarding him a roster spot out of spring training would essentially cost the Chicago Cubs a year of service time and allow the third baseman to become a free agent earlier in his career.
That’s not something you want to hear if your Theo Epstien and company considering Bryant’s agent is Scott Boras who is notorious for having his clients hit the open market.
Just A Bit Outside explains how the Chicago Cubs could earn an extra year of Kris Bryant by keeping him off the roster until later this season.
If the Cubs wait 12 days into the 2015 season to call up Bryant, he would finish 2015 with less than one year of service time, 171 days total. Bryant is not currently on the Cubs’ 40-man roster. So technically, if he starts the year in the minors, he is not “optioned” there, he is just “assigned” to minor-league camp.
I’m sure Kris Bryant is fully aware that it’s just politics and while potentially frustrated, understands what’s going on.
Hopefully for the Cubs, it doesn’t piss the young baseball phenom off when his free agency eventually does come up many years down the road.
