Jeff Passan of ESPN reports Chicago Cubs 3B/OF Kris Bryant has lost his service time grievance, and as a result, will not be a free agent until after the 2021 season.
Bryant filed his grievance during his rookie year when the Cubs had him start the 2015 season in Triple-A and did not call him up until they had gained an extra year of control over him. As noted by Passan, if Bryant has been called up to the majors one day sooner he would be a free agent after the completion of the 2020 season.
The ruling which will not be released for approximately another week will find “the Cubs did not run afoul of service-time rules when they called Bryant to the major leagues in April 17, 2015.”
At the moment, the Cubs are rumored to be looking to trade Bryant in the offseason due to a combination of their purported budgetary constraints and overtures from Bryant he will not be signing an extension with the team.
With both the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals having lost out to the Minnesota Twins for Josh Donaldson, both teams have been rumored to be interested in obtaining Bryant. With the Cubs being assured of having two years of control over Bryant, it’s unlikely they’ll ease off their high demands for Bryant with them having rumored to ask Victor Robles from the Nationals.
There are also larger implications for the next Collective Bargaining Agreement. Even before this ruling, the practice of holding a player in the minors to gain an extra year of control was going to be a hotly contested issue like it has been in the past few CBA negotiations.
This past year we saw players like Pete Alonso and Fernando Tatis Jr. begin the year in the majors thereby costing their organizations an extra year of control over those players. It will be interesting to see it other organizations choose to follow suit this year and the next in anticipation of renegotiating the CBA which expires on December 31, 2021.
