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Chicago Cubs: Top 3 signs Kris Bryant will be gone next season
Ongoing grievance hearings regarding potential service-time manipulation on the part of the Chicago Cubs has Kris Bryant front and center right now.
Since 2016, life has certainly changed for Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant. In 2016, Bryant was on fire, blasting 39 home runs and scoring 121 runs for the World Series champion Cubs.
However, the next two seasons were not as kind to Bryant who was plagued by injury, forcing him to re-tool his swing. In 2017, Bryant batted 549 times as opposed to the 603 in 2016. Things were certainly spiraling downward for the treasured third baseman. When he finally got back to the lineup in 2018 he put up only 13 home runs in 389 trips to bat and his run production fell to just 59 – as, once again, he played at less than 100 percent.
Fans knew it right away, something was definitely different about Bryant after the 2016 season. In 2019, everyone expected Bryant to pull out of his slump and return to the MVP status he once held. While on paper, Bryant’s numbers looked good, 153 hits, 108 runs and 31 home runs; those offensive explosions seemed out of sync for when the Chicago Cubs really needed Bryant to come through with his bat.
Now the season is over and there are signs everywhere that Bryant may have played his last game as a member of the Chicago Cubs. Let’s take a look at the top three signs Bryant will be gone next season.
Chicago Cubs: 2020 will be a season of change for the team
If you needed any better example of shaking things up for the 2020 season, look at the unexpected firing of manager Joe Maddon and the hiring of new skipper David Ross. Getting a new manager doesn’t necessarily mean shaking up an entire team but in this case, it sorta does. Ross, the former catcher and 2016 Game 7 hero of the Cubs, heads back to the dugout in a very new role.
This huge change for the Cubs! Truth be told, Bryant would probably like Ross as a skipper and already has relationships on the team which would make it a positive situation. There’s something else going on with Bryant that we just aren’t privy to. Could it be personal? Could it be money? Could it be ego?
Whatever the reason, it’s big enough for Bryant to look past the great friends, life as a Cub, living in Chicago and he and his spouse being treated like royalty wherever they go in the city. Who could ask for more? Kris Bryant, because there’s some reason behind it we’ll learn about eventually Cubs fans; trust me.
Change is a good thing too. Change for Bryant to get his career jumping again, which I’m sure he wants. Then there’s change for the Cubs who get to look both internally and externally for their new third baseman.
Ross will get to have a hand in that, which I’m sure he will like as well. The Chicago Cubs front office will have some money coming in from trading Bryant or at least some hand in a deal. The team needs to make dramatic changes and Bryant’s departure could help the change the team is trying to achieve.
Chicago Cubs: Grievance hearing is the beginning of the end
If Bryant wants to leave because the Cubs pulled a fast one on him to get another season of play out of him, then I agree with him. Bryant started the 2015 season in the minors and was called up in April.
This little “oversight” by the Chicago Cubs, would keep Bryant a Cub until 2021. If Bryant would have reported just one day earlier to the big leagues, he would be going into free agency in 2020. That’s another reason why the former Rookie of the Year is upset.
The MLB Player’s Association filed a grievance along with Bryant and are to meet with the Chicago Cubs and Major League Baseball to discuss a way forward. I would bet all my ‘Skyway Dogs’ that Bryant is going to get a favorable outcome to his grievance and be a free agent next year.
Then, the Cubs are going to offer him some ungodly amount of money. Last year the Cubs offered Bryant $200 million and he turned it down! So where could the Cubs go from there? They will have to do better than $200 million and it just won’t be fiscally feasible for the way the Cubs are situated now. Either way, I don’t think there is any dollar amount that could make Bryant stay.
So when you take into account that Bryant may be looking outside the club and he’s going to be a free agent next season and he hasn’t been happy for some unknown reason, than it’s pretty clear that the filing of this grievance is a sign that Bryant is done with the Chicago Cubs.
Chicago Cubs: One way or another, Kris Bryant is gone either way
Let’s say the Chicago Cubs somehow beat the system with their expert legal team. They go in to the meeting and say they were completely innocent in holding Bryant out those two weeks in 2017. MLB then rules in the Cubs’ favor and Bryant is told he will have to stay another year. You mean to tell me that this guy is going to be motivated to play for this team?
Of course not.
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The Chicago Cubs, on the other hand, would now have Bryant for another year and could trade him before he enters free agency. If the Cubs win the grievance, then almost definitely Bryant would be traded.
But don’t you already get that feeling that it is exactly what Bryant wants? It’s almost as if he knows that the one certain outcome of the grievance is that he will finally get to go somewhere else. Either way he’s out. Part of me wonders if Bryant was somehow mistreated during his camp years and has built up a resentment of the club? Why else would there always be this feeling of ‘the grass may be greener on the other side’ when it comes to Bryant’s actions.
It’s very much the same feeling I had about Dexter Fowler during the World Series celebrations. The usual jovial and loud right fielder was quiet during the celebrations in the weeks that followed the championship. You could tell he was going to jump ship; you had that feeling. Bryant could be Fowler’s twin in this example and may even be following Fowler’s playbook.
Whether it’s even actually Bryant and not his agent pulling all these negative strings, is a matter of some talk right now among fans. No one wants to think of Bryant as the ‘bad guy’ or the guy that broke up the Beatles. Instead, fans turn on Bryant’s agent Scott Boras as the bad guy whose making the lovable third baseman do all these dastardly things to the Cubs and even hold out during negotiations.
Next. Choices for David Ross' bench coach in Chicago. dark
To say that Bryant doesn’t know exactly what’s going on with his own career is a bit naive. After all, he’s the one signing all of Boras’ checks. That means the signs are that Kris Bryant is exactly where he wants to be: on his way out.