Kris Bryant Service Time Issues Explained (Spoiler Alert: Scott Boras Sucks)
There’s been a lot of unanticipated Kris Bryant noise this week. I know Big Cat blogged it earlier today, but I wanted to revisit the issue for two reasons: (1) Kris Bryant is awesome, and (2) fuck Scott Boras.
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So here’s what’s going on. I’ll keep it simple. Kris Bryant is baseball’s #1 prospect. For all intents and purposes, he is 100% ready to play third base for the Cubs. His spring training has been nothing short of ridiculous. Specifically, he’s 10 for 23 with 6 equally distributed Yabos to left, center and right. He’s reached base in 13 of 26 plate appearances while driving in 9 runs – a pace that would put him around 210 RBI’s over an entire season of shitty Cactus Leage baseball. Couple this with the fact that the Cubs got well below average production at the position in 2014, and you have yourself a pretty convincing argument that Kris Bryant should be the opening day third baseman. That is of course until you consider service time and the effects it would have on him becoming a free agent.
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The Cubs want to keep Bryant in the minors until April 18th. Doing so will ensure that Kris Bryant does not become a free agent until following 2021 season. I’ll explain why in tomorrow’s arbitration blog, but for now let’s talk about Scott Boras because he’s the reason we’re even having this discussion in this first place.
If Boras wanted Bryant to be the 2015 opening day first baseman for the Chicago Cubs, he should have negotiated a major league deal much like he did with Stephen Strasburg with the Nationals in 2009. Doing so would have prevented any and all of these service time issues. But facts are facts and Boras didn’t get his client the big league deal. Instead, he took the gigantic signing bonus route and in turn accepted the risk that something like this would happen. And by “something like this” I simply mean that his client would actually be really fucking good at professional baseball. Oh shit imagine that Scott. Now, baseball’s biggest stone thrower just moved into his most fantastic glass house to date by conveniently pulling the Bad Faith card on the Cubs. Color me fucking shocked.
Boras is crying bad faith because he, like everyone else, thinks Bryant is good enough to be in the big leagues. And while Bryant is clearly our best option at third, there’s a big difference between COULD be in the big leagues, and SHOULD be in the big leagues. The kid can obviously play, but why start him up and risk losing the year on free agency? For two and a half weeks in early April? Get out of my face with that shit. There is literally no argument worth accepting on the other side. None. The recipe for a world series is consistent playoff appearances. Financial flexibility is critical to that just as it is to guarantee another year of Bryant in a Cubs’ uniform. So locking in that year is priority #1 even if it means him starting the season in AAA Iowa.
In any event, it’s worth nothing that this now represent the biggest prospect-promotion dispute to date, and one that Boras will undoubtedly take to the MLBPA. It’s equally sure though that Boras will fail in his complaint. There’s too much subjectivity and uncertainty involved to make an airtight case that Bryant is being screwed by the Cubs. That’s not just for Bryant, but any player in his situation. He’s never played in the big leagues. It’s not like he had a big run in September and now the Cubs are sending him back. They can always argue that they’re protecting him and they can argue that however they want. Fact of the matter is MLB can’t interfere in situations like this. It would set awful precedent. So really this is nothing more than a big pissing match that will undoubtedly fall on deaf ears. Why? Because Theo Epstein doesn’t negotiate with terrorists.
Or Scott Boras.
@barstoolcarl