The Bryant Kerfuffle: A Shakespearean Tale

In the absence of baseball news, there brews a tempest in a teapot about Cubs prospect Kris Bryant. Bryant is the Cubs' third baseman of the future, a future that by all accounts should start on Opening Day.

Instead, Bryant will toil in Triple-A for two weeks so that his service time clock isn't wound and ticking. That will allow Chicago brass to dictate his wages for one extra year and delay his eventual free agency likewise. 

Prompting Twitter to go all a-twitter. This is emblematic:






Yeah, sure you will. Until they make the playoffs, and then you'll forget that Kris Bryant only made 146 starts instead of 153 back in '15.

The Cubs are simply exploiting a quirk in service time rules that makes this kind of gerrymandering not just possible but wise. Not just wise but unimpeachable. Not just unimpeachable but obvious. Losing 10 games of a rookie's contributions will save the team millions of dollars over time if he lives up to expectations. 

Many have brayed a similar donkey call about the MLBPA. Who do they think negotiated the rules that made this move necessary? It's called collective bargaining because the two sides do it together.

This dust-up is magnified by Bryant's cartoonish Spring Training. He has popped more in-game dingers than the Florida Marlins and has authored a 25-at-bat line of .480/.552/1.520, including one gargantuan long ball against King Felix Hernandez. 

But none of that alters the reality with which the Cubs have to deal, and that is that 12 days of banishment keeps their phenom on the team through 2021.

Perhaps the best final word comes from the Astros' George Springer, who was last Spring's Kris Bryant, until the season began and he commenced to fan like a deck of cards.