Jeff Passan of ESPN broke some news this morning regarding Kris Bryant’s grievance case. If you aren’t aware of the situation, Bryant was hoping to become a free agent after 2020 instead of 2021 because of the way the Cubs manipulated his service time. However, this is something clubs often do – as the Braves did with Ronald Acuña – and it was always suspected that the ruling would go in the Cubs’ favor, which it did.
BREAKING: Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant has lost his grievance against the team seeking an extra year of service, sources familiar with the ruling tell ESPN.
News story at @espn: https://t.co/07lx6NUttj
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 29, 2020
There haven’t been many reports regarding trade talks surrounding Bryant of late, and this ruling was probably the primary reason as to why. No team was going to commit multiple top prospects as well as major league talent until they knew for sure what they were getting.
While nothing is guaranteed, I’d expect trade rumors to heat up rather quickly. The Cubs have done minimal spending this offseason and look to be staring a rebuild in the face very soon. Dealing Bryant with two more years left on his contract while in his prime could jumpstart that rebuild or allow them to skip the rebuilding phase altogether. With the Braves’ third base situation still in question, this is something worth monitoring moving forward. If Anthopoulos isn’t interested now, that could change based on Johan Camargo and Austin Riley’s performances in the first half of the season.
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