Today’s sports world makes for strange times and interesting dilemmas.
So strange, that the Chicago Cubs are considering keeping their very capable prospect third baseman, Kris Bryant (who hit 43 home runs in AAA and AA last year), in the minors on opening day of the 2015 season. All indications are that Bryant is one of the best prospects in baseball, and ready for “the show”, so what is the issue?
As explained by Fox Sport’s CJ Nitkowski, MLB has a service time rule that requires a player to have at least 172 days per year in the majors to earn a year of service. This service time, is composed of 162 regular season games, and 21 off days.
Since it takes six years of service time to become a free agent, leaving Kris Bryant in the minors for at least twelve calendar days before he is called up means it will take Bryant an extra year to gain unrestricted free agent access. This ultimately gives the Cubs an extra year of control over his contract if he pans out to be the player the Cubs are hoping that he will be.
While the move may be greedy if the Cubs do it, it seems like a no-brainer.
Twelve days without a potential star third baseman, for a potential extra year of what he can turn out to be can mean all the difference for a team that is building itself for the years to come. Not only that, but why not get the twelve days out of the way at the beginning of the year instead of the last half the year when the games can be more meaningful?
It’s a brilliant move, and one that would be expected in today’s money driven game.
Of course, that is if the Cubs don’t miss the playoffs by a handful of games that Kris Bryant could have been playing in this year.
