Chicago Cubs’ Kris Bryant: I played well enough to make the team
Chicago Cubs prospect Kris Bryant is using his demotion to the minor leagues as motivation and is disappointed he didn’t make the big league club.
Kris Bryant was reassigned the to the Chicago Cubs minor league camp on Monday despite hitting nine home runs in spring training and being hailed as the consensus top prospect in MLB.
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Bryant is likely to make his MLB debut as soon as mid-April after he makes a few more appearances in left field to give the big league club some versatility with the slugger with prodigious power. The decision was largely a business decision even though Cubs president Theo Epstein did his best to make it sound otherwise.
Nevertheless, Epstein and the Cubs made the move because they gain an extra year of service time if they delay his promotion 12 days into the season, so would you rather have Kris Bryant for 12 days this year or for an entire season when he’s in his prime in 2021?
Bryant is understandably frustrated and disappointed with the team’s decision, but is using it as motivation until he does make his big league debut, likely in mid-April.
“I’m excited to see what comes out with this motivation. I’ve never been in this situation before. Maybe my game will go to another level.”
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) April 2, 2015
Look out AAA pitchers, because Bryant may hit 500-foot home runs in every at bat.
The Cubs took advantage of a rule in the collective bargaining agreement and made the wise business decision, which is something professional sports teams do all the time.
Business decisions result in players getting released, traded and signed all the time, so this shouldn’t be viewed any differently. Although it is and the player’s union is unhappy about Bryant’s demotion and could threaten some sort of action to prevent things like this happening to the next Kris Bryant.
The former No. 2 pick out of San Diego in the 2013 MLB Draft could have hit 700-foot home runs in each of his spring training at bats and the decision would have been the same by the Cubs, so it’s understandable for Bryant to be disappointed, but he didn’t say he was surprised by the decision.
He made it as hard as possible for the Cubs brass with his play on the field and when he comes up he’s going to be a fixture in the middle of the lineup for years to come and while the patience of Cubs is wearing thin after years of futility, Bryant offers hope that next year could actually be here.
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