Kris Bryant, Scott Boras & Service Time: Another Thrilling Spring Training Storyline

In a more-perfect, happier world, Kris Bryant would be the talk of baseball. People would be raving about the third baseman’s patently absurd Spring Training 1.804 OPS with six homers in 23 at bats and theorizing how it’ll translate during the regular season, which happens to begin on Sunday, April 5 with the Cardinals playing the Cubs.

True, the baseball world is talking about Bryant. Unfortunately the talk around Bryant centers on baseball’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, which is probably the most-thrilling, interesting sports topic to discuss on planet Earth. Long story short: if the Cubs keep Bryant at Triple A for at least 12 games at the start of the 2015 season his service time clock won’t count for an entire year, meaning he’ll be under team control an extra full season. Naturally Bryant’s agent, Scott Boras, isn’t happy about a rule that would keep his client from hitting the free agent market earlier.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports details the arguement and got some quotes from Boras.

"“Cubs ownership has a choice,” Boras told FOX Sports on Tuesday. “Are they going to present to their market that they are trying to win? Tom Ricketts said they were all about winning. “When someone says it’s the system, no, it’s a choice — the choice of winning.”"

Cubs President Theo Epstein basically said he doesn’t care what Boras thinks.

"“Kris Bryant’s development path has absolutely nothing to do with ownership, period. As with all our baseball decisions, I will determine where Kris begins the 2015 season after consulting with members of our baseball operations staff. Comments from agents, media members and anybody outside our organization will be ignored.”"

Admittedly I possess neither a law degree, an advanced statistics degree nor an MBA , so this sort of contractual/labor stuff doesn’t exactly get my engine revving up in March (or ever). Owners and players agreed on these rules for service time. If you’re the Cubs, trading 12 games in April to make some feel good headlines is pretty dumb, especially since Boras rarely keeps his clients from testing the market. Shockingly the best interests of a sports agent and team management aren’t the exact same thing, who knew?

If you’re a Cubs fan it’s frustrating to watch, because aside from the rule there is no reason Bryant shouldn’t be at third base at Wrigley on opening night. Then again, if Bryant is as good as everyone thinks he’ll be, do 12 games in April — independent of the pie in the sky World Series talk for the Cubs — offset a full year down the road? Probably not. You’d think, however, it would behoove MLB, which would love to create a new set of stars, to have young, high-ceiling players on as many Opening Day rosters as possible.

This opinion is hardly breaking new ground, but life will probably go on for all parties involved if and when Bryant is called up in mid-April like many other players in the past. If this is a really big deal for players (and agents) they’ll have to fight for it in the next round of CBA talks, which figure to enthrall a captive audience of fans from coast-to-coast. Call me crazy but I’d wager most baseball fans would rather talk about (and see) Bryant hitting home runs into the Wrigley Field bleachers — assuming they’re ever finished — than figuring out how many days on an active roster (172) count towards a full year of service time.