HOLY CRAP! MLB Might Alter Rules, Making Kris Bryant a Free Agent After the 2020 Season!
UMM… WTF! That’s what I suppose anyone would be thinking right about now. The Chicago Cubs should have control of their third baseman, Kris Bryant, until the end of the 2021 season. But, the Cubs and the MLB will be handling the grievance that Bryant and his agent, Scott Boras filed back in 2015, when Bryant missed a full-service year by one day. If the MLB finds in the favor of Bryant – he will become a free agent at the end of the 2020 season, and not the 2021 season as originally expected.
Here's another Cubs scoop. Cubs/MLB will be dealing with Kris Bryant's grievance this week from 2015 over service time + Cubs decision to delay his MLB debut until he fell 1 day short of being a free agent after the 2020 season. Could have MLB altering implications if he wins.
— David Kaplan (@thekapman) October 23, 2019
This not only has giant implications for the Cubs, and Bryant – but ALL baseball. Manipulating the service clock is commonplace in baseball. Nearly every huge prospect will be held out to the day in which the team gains another year of control. This is what happened to Bryant, and is the original reason why he would need to wait till the end of 2021.
If MLB rules in Bryant’s favor, this will become the final year of control for Bryant. This could also mean every other player that has been held back will likely become a free agent a year sooner than expected.
If MLB does rule to eliminate that extra year of control, it becomes imperative for the Cubs to work out an extension with the Cubs’ top offensive player since 2015. Hell, I’d argue that it is imperative that they do it anyway.
If it goes Bryant’s way (I hate using “if” as much as I have in this post, I’m sure as much as you don’t like reading the if’s) AND the two cannot come to a reasonable extension, then my opinion on not trading Bryant could be changed.
It appears that David Ross could come into a very weird situation.
