Kris Bryant’s service-time grievance became one of the offseason’s longest-running subplots, both because of the unexpectedly lengthy amount of time it took for the final ruling to be announced, and because of the perception that this extended wait may have impacted the Cubs’ efforts to trade the former NL MVP. Arbitrator Mark Irvings eventually ruled in favor of the Cubs, which kept Bryant under team control through the 2021 season rather than only the 2020 season, though the specific arguments behind Irvings’ decision weren’t known until Tuesday, when the Associated Press obtained a copy of Irvings’ 42-page ruling.
The Cubs kept Bryant in the minor leagues to begin the 2015 season, arguing that the then-prospect still had to work on his defense in preparation for his eventual MLB debut. Bryant was called up on April 17, a day after he would have gathered enough service time to become a free agent after the 2020 season. Instead, the Cubs gained a seventh year of control over Bryant, who earned a fourth arbitration year as a Super Two player but still couldn’t hit the open market until after the 2021 campaign.
It was widely expected that the Cubs would win the case, and indeed, Irvings ultimately felt “the [MLBPA] could not satisfy its burden of proving that the Cubs’ assignments of Bryant were done in bad faith to mask service time manipulation.” Irvings cited Bryant’s three errors during Spring Training 2015 as plausible evidence that his glovework was a concern for the team, and the specific timing of Bryant’s call-up coincided with injuries to regular third basemen Tommy La Stella and Mike Olt earlier in the week. Also, Irvings noted that Theo Epstein’s front offices in both Boston and Chicago didn’t place rookies on the Opening Day roster as a general rule, so it wasn’t as if keeping Bryant in the minors departed from Epstein’s established norm.
Irvings specified that his ruling applied only to Bryant’s case, and that “this decision does not address, the global issue of whether clubs have the right to manage service time to delay a player’s achievement of the service benchmarks for salary arbitration and free agent eligibility.” Bryant’s grievance is the most high-profile instance of a player challenging the increasingly common practice of star prospects being kept in the minors for (unstated) service-time reasons, yet it isn’t likely that this practice will be formally dealt with in any way until the new Collective Bargaining Agreement is negotiated between the league and the MLBPA.
As one might expect, Bryant sees early-career status as one of the key issues of the coming CBA talks. “I think we need to look at how early in your career you provide so much value to a team, and you’re a significantly huge bargain,” Bryant told USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. “And then when it’s your turn to fight for your value, people only want to see what you’ve done recently. I just feel like we should definitely change that structure where you’re paid earlier on, and are quicker to arbitration and free agency, stuff like that. Certain things we should totally fight for.”
Bryant gave his take on a number of current topics surrounding the game during the Q&A, including his thoughts on the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, his positive feelings about the new three-batter minimum rule for relievers, and his more measured view of other proposals (i.e. an expanded playoff structure, automatically placing a runner at second base during extra innings). While Epstein and Bryant recently had a meeting that left the third baseman feeling that he’ll remain with the Cubs at least through the 2020 season, he told Nightengale that was “over” worrying about trade speculation since “I don’t have any control over it, so what are you going to do?”
That said, it is perhaps telling that when asked about getting no-trade protection in his next contract, Bryant said, “I think that might be the most important thing to me. It just gives you clarity in where you’ll be. If you have that in your contract, you know the team’s 100% committed to you being there. You’re their guy. It’s never in your mind about being traded. That’s definitely a very comforting feeling.”
dynamite drop in monty
Did the council approve the creation of a clone army??
DarkSide830
they voted in favor of giving the chancellor emergency powers
kevnames42
Master Syfo Dias did
jdan74
From the moment I met you, all those years ago, not a day has gone by when I haven’t thought of you. And now that I’m with you again… I’m in agony. The closer I get to you, the worse it gets. The thought of not being with you- I can’t breath. I’m haunted by the kiss that you should never have given me. My heart is beating… hoping that kiss will not become a scar. You are in my very soul, tormenting me… what can I do?- I will do anything you ask.
… if you are suffering as much as I am, PLEASE, tell me.
Oops. Sorry. Wrong person.
BobSacamano
Did they manipulate the service time? Yes. Is it legal to manipulate service time? Yes.
MoRivera 1999
Not what the ruling indicates, per the article. First the ruling declares that the timing was driven by 1) a legitimate concern about defense raised in ST and 2) injuries to LaStella and Olt. Second it says the ruling does NOT “address the global issue of whether clubs have the right to manage service time to delay a player’s achievement of the service benchmarks for salary arbitration and free agent eligibility.”
BobSacamano
How? The Cubs were paying a union “brother” in place of bryant.
AlvaroEspinoza 2
I wonder why you have such destain for organized labor, and why it manifests itself in the comments sections here. Was there a recent incident you are upset about? I’d love to hear more.
BobSacamano
I really have no idea what you’re talking about. I am a union member and I don’t have a disdain for unions. It’s quite simple, if you want it in black and white, put it in the agreement. How do you mathematically “evaluate” prospect readiness?
SheltonMatthews
He made 2 errors in the first 7 games for the Iowa Cubs in 2015, but I’m assuming he worked really hard on his defense and that’s why they called him up the day after they controlled him for another year.
mike127
He also had the worst fielding percentage of ALL baseball players during spring training….it’s in the report.
lowtalker1
Did they really manipulate it? He isn’t actually the best defender. They followed what the rules said. What if they keep him down until June? Would he cry a river for not being super 2?
BobSacamano
I guess it depends on who you ask. In my opinion they did.
rememberthecoop
Of course they did Bob. Everyone with a brain knows that. But so what? Don’t blame the team, blame the rule. Of course, the timing of those two injuries was quite fortunate in this case.
MoRivera 1999
The ruling suggests they did not manipulate it. They kept him in the minors to work on defense, because he showed he had problems in ST. Then there were injuries to LaStella and Olt and that drove the timing of his call-up. Who knows how long he would have stayed down but for the injuries? That seems to be the gist of the ruling.
lowtalker1
I say after super two status
ABCD
Remember they called up Addison Russell a week later. That was a surprise. I would guess that they were planning to bring them both up together in mid-April but the injuries forced them to call up Bryant sooner.
bencole
The ruling only suggests that Bryant didn’t prove the Cubs didn’t do it in bad faith.
nats3256
exactly. if you have options left, you can go to the minors. it’s not hard.
Awesom-O
If you draw a definitive line, or date in a cba, I’m sorry, but it’s within the clubs right to game the system. Sucks for the players but your reps agreed to it. Make that “line” closer to the trade deadline and maybe teams won’t be as tempted. It’s too easy a system to game, and the teams should absolutely do it if it’s in their best interests.
pt57
No, it’s not a club‘s right. The club has to come up with a plausible pretext, and the arbitrator won’t look too hard at that pretext.
If the club says “we’re doing this to play the system,” it’s toast.
teufelshunde4
Is it really in the clubs best interest? On surface probably, but there are always going to be ways it hurts a team in the long run. Teams want players to agree to team friendly deals, vs testing the arbitration & FA markets. By treating the player to much like a commodity to be used & thrown away, the player will likely be less inclined to except anything but top dollar from a club.
Just because you can do something doesnt mean you should. If Im Bryant or any other player who had their service time clearly manipulated, I make teams pay thru the nose for my services.
jimthegoat
When has manipulating a player’s service time ever hurt a team? And who says Bryant would have accepted anything less than top dollar from Chicago even if they hadn’t manipulated his service time?
cheapgm4hire
Feel like this article could of been said with a lot less words.
MoRivera 1999
I feel that this comment could have been better written. I wish that people with less than perfect writing would stop complaining about the writing and editorial decisions of MLBTR. It’s so annoying.
dynamite drop in monty
Or not at all.
Cubguy13
Swinging from MLBTR nuts again
charlie 6
It seems like the injuries to the other third basemen created their plausible deniability. They probably would have kept him dow. another week or two (to avoid this grievance scenario) without the injuries.
charlie 6
It’s interesting because in general contract law there is a requirement of good faith and fair dealing that, perhaps, is not being met here. It seems obvious that he was kept down to win another year of service time, and any explanation to the contrary is contrived.
pt57
The Cubs weren’t dumb enough to admit it.
oldmansteve
Well obviously you didn’t read the article.
1. Bryant made 3 errors in spring training which gives credence to needing to work on defense in the minors.
2. Epstein hardly ever breaks camps with rookies, so it wasn’t out of the norm.
3. His debut coincided with two injuries to infielders giving them a reason to call him up at the time they did.
His service time was, in my opinion, manipulated, but to say “any explanation to the contrary is contrived,” is blatantly wrong. It’s very easy to make an argument against it. The Cubs did and won.
JT19
Not a fan of the “Epstein doesn’t normally have rookies break camp” point because you could make the argument that he doesn’t start the season with them as to delay their service clock. Not that it would really matter, but the MLBPA could press Epstein on why he doesn’t normally break camp with rookies, especially if the rookie is eventually called up within the few first weeks.
lucienbel
I think the arbitrators decision is essentially saying that they used good faith as Steve Nebraska pointed out. Whether you actually believe those actions show good faith is another issue. But the arbitrator did and he makes the decision so.
thunderbolt
Bryant’s gone as soon as he can get out of Chicago. Same psychodynamics as the Arenado situation in terms of pissing off your young star player unnecessarily instead of looking at the long term ramifications.
Javia
The Padres brought both Paddack and Tatis up for opening day. It cost them a full year of service time for both. Do you really think that is going to buy them any goodwill when free agency comes around? Players go to whichever team offers them the biggest contract. Does Bryant have a grudge against the Cubs? Sure. I am sure he will get over it instantly if the Cubs put the biggest offer on the table.
JT19
It might. I imagine most, if not all, players would just end up taking the biggest contract offered but there would be more of a reason to consider that slightly team-friendly deal if the team had given some goodwill in the past.
jimthegoat
Much more likely that they just go to the highest bidder. And even if they take a slight discount to stay in San Diego because they didn’t play service time games the Padres will still pay them more $ in 2025 than they would have if they had just gotten the extra year of arbitration.
jimthegoat
Yup. Preller is looking pretty stupid for calling up Tatis and Paddack early now. But it wasn’t the first or the last stupid decision he made.
rememberthecoop
Bryant definitively has stated he holds no ill will whatsoever and I believe him.
jdan74
What if ill Will holds him? He might get Coronavirus.
YankeesBleacherCreature
Bryant appears to be a pretty intelligent guy. He has stated that it’s all part of the business which he fully understands. There is absolutely no reason for him to spurn a potential suitor in the Cubs when he reaches free agency. This is not an Arenado situation at all.
SanDiegoPaul
Fricken dirty.
artfay
I think the real issue is being missed.
Was it worth jerking him around like this to gain the extra year? Now he’s leaving for sure or at least not taking any kind of discount to stay. Was it worth it? Look across town at what the Sox are doing- 70-90 million for Moncada vs 200-300M for Bryant. Ouch.
ncaachampillini
Uh…. the 70-90 million that Moncada covers the exact years of control that KB is finishing up next year so no idea what your point is.
jimthegoat
“Was it worth jerking him around like this to gain the extra year?”
You bet.
“Now he’s leaving for sure…”
So he told you this?
“… or at least not taking any kind of discount to stay.”
Who says he’d have given the Cubs any discount if they had him on the roster to start 2015?
“Look across town at what the Sox are doing- 70-90 million for Moncada vs 200-300M for Bryant. Ouch.”
Scott Boras would never have let Bryant sign one of those extensions.
pt57
It’s not Boras’ decision to sign an extension.
If you buy a hammer at the hardware store, you’re looking to go to town on a nail, not screw in a screw. Bryant bought Boras to do a job, because Bryant is treating baseball like his business and wants to get the max amount of salary as possible.
Vizionaire
wouldn’t you want the maximum compensation for what you do extremely well? or you would voluntarily cut your earnings in half?
pt57
Yes, I would.
And I would hire Boras to get me that.
Lovinmlb
It amazes me how many people believe in the home town discount etc. Like Padres would get Strasburg or LA Cole cause they lived there 10 years ago. Sure some players will take slightly less money cause they like somewhere better than somewhere else. But the cubs could call his wife and mother names, insult his manhood but if they offer 50 million more is he going to pass? I am being extreme but would he refuse to sign with them because of what they did? Lose 50 million to spite them?
I don’t know for sure they did it to screw him over to get that extra year. If I was to do that to a player I would wait 4 days or 9 days or something, not 1 so it wouldn’t look as obvious. 2 I don’t think they have any interest in signing him anyways. They milked the cheapest most productive years of his career out of him. Let NY Philly whoever pay for him.
I think system needs changed. Maybe after say 3 or 4 years in the minors your clock starts so there is no benefit to keep you down there when you are ready. So if you come right to MLB when scheduled then same as it is now. But if you develop 2 years later than average you get 3 pre arbs, arb 1, then are a free agent. I dunno if that is better or not but has to be something better than this. Holding someone back just because you aren’t ready to contend or waiting for a position to open up and slide him in when your major leaguer hits free agency isn’t fair to the employee.
jimthegoat
It wouldn’t be a hometown discount because Bryant isn’t from Chicago. He grew up in Vegas and went to college at the University of San Diego.
Bryant was probably the most obvious case of service time manipulation ever but as long as Theo doesn’t come out and admit that that’s why he held Bryant down for the first 12 days of the season there is really nothing they can do about it except change the rules in the next CBA.
And no, Bryant is not going to sign elsewhere for less money if the Cubs are the higher bidder.
Dorothy_Mantooth
Boras somehow “allowed” Xander to sign a 5 year, $100M contract last year with the Red Sox. While this looks like a steal for Boston after the season he had in 2019, Xander is very happy with the deal as he wanted to stay in Boston. It’s the player’s decision and not the agent’s on if/when they sign and for how much.
JT19
I mean Boras is going to seek the best contract possible for his clients, but if the player says “I want to sign for X amount of years for X amount of money” and the team is willing to give that, then nothing is stopping the player from doing so. While Boras is shrewd and will usually get every penny possible for his clients, he’s also acknowledged that he works for the players and will help them get the contract that they want.
YankeesBleacherCreature
Epstein chose to game the system which is part of his job description. He can’t predict what Bryant will do six years later. He’s also a Scott Boras client so you can toss the idea of accepting a hometown discount out the window.
teufelshunde4
Moncada isnt in KB’s league as a player. Its gonna be funny when Sox crash & burn with this contracts.
jdan74
Seems everyone in the Cubs front office has been jerking Bryant around. Jed is a jerking machine. McLeod? Of course he’s a Bryant jerker. And we all know Theo is a jerkin machine. Bryant’s gotta be exhausted from being jerked off this much.
wordonthestreet
Artfay your a joke.
You think Bryant was taking a home town discount …. oh but now he is not? Hilarious.
Oh now he is leaving for sure? Oh but if the Cubs did not do that then he was staying for sure? You are clueless
charlie 6
Also, I must admit my ignorance, but if the Cubs directly said “we kept him down solely to gain an extra year of control”, would that violate the CBA?
pt57
Yes.
baines03
I find it ironic that the arbitrator delayed his decision much like the Cubs delayed Bryant’s service clock… kinda screwing them in the process.
yankees500
I never understood, and still don’t, this entire process. The Cubs had every right to hold Kris Bryant in the minors. The arbitrator can’t say it’s not okay to manipulate the service time after it happened. The league needs to address it ahead of time in the next CBA.
YankeesBleacherCreature
You just can’t be obvious that you’re holding a player down. Cubs came up with their best reasons to do so. MLBPA and Bryant knew they had little chance to win their grievance. It brings the issue to the forefront and receive press coverage. If the players strike (hopefully not) in 2022, it’s another thing they can point to to add pressure to the team owners. It will be definitely be addressed.
yankees500
Yes it has to be. Truthfully, if they ruled in favor of Bryant literally dozens of players would have filed their own grievances. It would have been a mess. I hope they can come up with a good way to fix it, i certainly have no idea how.
twentyforty
The only thing more asinine than this click bait is the commentary by a Cubs haters who don’t understand professional sports…baseball in particular.
Ricky Adams
Did the Cubs manipulate his playing time? Most likely. Do I care or feel bad for him? Absolutely not. If he got screwed, he needs to take that up with players union. They negotiated the rules that the Cubs operated legally under and manipulated. And, I’m sorry, not sorry that he got cheated out of a year of free agency and 10-20 million dollars, when in 4 yrs in majors and at 28yo hes already made 10x more money than most of us will make in our entire lives. Must be so hard being a Pro baseball player in today’s world. But, if u dont like it u can always get a job in real world and see how unfair the real world is.
dynamite drop in monty
I’m sorry to interrupt, sir. But other customers are in line and you haven’t specified what Baconater you want in your combo mewl.
8
Bryant to NYY for Clint Frazier
MoRivera 1999
Said no one ever. Just sayin’.
ChiSox_Fan
Bryant to White Sox for Leury Garcia!
That Baseball Fan
Thank you so far to the commenters for not saying “Everybody does this”. No, every team doesn’t treat their young star players the way the Cubs treated Bryant.
whosyourmomma
The fact the arbitrator used the propaganda about Bryant “having to work on his defense” is a complete disgrace. That guy not only led his team in Home Runs but ALL of Mlb that spring training. 3 errors but I think he hit 11 HR’s (not to mention he posted 43 HR’s, 110 RBI’s and .325 BA in 2014)!!!
Does anyone think the “injuries” to either Olt and/or LaStella were possibly a move to justify his call up immediately after they gained an extra year of control on Bryant too? Theo reportedly told older players to get on PEDs in Boston so he’s not a saint!
bobtillman
I’ll stick to my prediction that the new CBA will bring radical changes, both to the Revenue Sharing computations (no more tanking, some mechanism for a salary floor) and Free Agency/Arbitration (maybe as far as an abolition of arbitration in exchange for earlier Free agency, based on signing date instead of service time).
Those systems were put into place in the day when the average fan couldn’t tell you who their teams’ General Manager was, or who their #25th rated prospect was, or who got paid what.
Franchise values are no longer growing, and besides the introduction of gambling in MLB parks, there are few revenue streams left to mine. The owners know it; the players know it. The landscape has to change.
Vizionaire
i would like to see heavier penalties for going over the threshold. and create lower salary threshold that is set at $120 mil.
there is an espn article explaining why baseball is losing fans and not gaining young fans. that has nothing to do with playing time. some teams have no chance to contend this year or next 5 years. if i may add commish know nothing about baseball and managing baseball, either!
YankeesBleacherCreature
I agree mostly but franchise values have in fact continued to increase due in part to every team owning a piece of MLBAM. It’s a literal goldmine and they also provide backend support for streaming services such as ESPN, HBO, WWE, etc. and involved with video game development. Not nearly on the same scale but it’s like Amazon’s arm of AWS.
whosyourmomma
Arbitrator brings up Boston, well news flash Theo walked into an all star team there which was also a top spending team for years while he was there (he didn’t need many rookies). 42 pages and this clown or anyone else honestly thinks Olt AND LaStella were far superior on defense compared to Bryant and their bats are equal to Bryant’s, like seriously? Fact is Bryant was one of the best (if not the best) position player on entire Cubs roster in 2015 so the only reason anyone could use is that he was kept down in minors for 11 days or whatever it was for one of most blatant service time manipulations!
crazylarry
Just another excuse for the poor excuse of the Commish allowing this to go so long to protect the Cubs. I can’t remember a Commish so out of touch with the game in which he runs. Manfred has the set the game back 100 years. He just doesn’t get it. To let an arbitrator let this go on so long is just poor business.
chicagofan1978
Oh oh oh fancy Nancy ooh la la
JustCheckingIn
Gotta love that Epstein’s past history of manipulating service time is somehow viewed as a positive thing in this ruling. Amazing
themaven
What “bad faith” was there on the Cubs part?
They acted according to the letter of the CBA.There is no other interpretation of the language in what is a binding contract.
This arbitrator took forever to make his decision on a matter that was completely cut and dried and then issues this statement full of contrived legalese and assorted cow patties.
All you can do is shake your head.
jimthegoat
They didn’t follow the spirit of the CBA and it’s fairly certain that it will be amended in the next CBA negotiation.
themaven
The spirit of the CBA?
What is that a women’s professional basketball team?
You gotta be kidding me.
It’s a contract, there is no spirit involved it’s cut and dried,drawn up by lawyers and everything!
More head shaking here.
jimthegoat
The term “letter and spirit of the law” exists for a reason. And there’s not a single soul that doesn’t know the real reason the Cubs waited to call Kris up. I will be surprised if the rule isn’t amended in the new CBA.
bush1
Of course the Cubs manipulated Bryant’s service time. It would’ve been bad business not too, and the idiotic rules that the Players association agreed to allowed for it.
jimthegoat
Oh, but doing right by the player is actually GOOD business!
/s
Rsox
The funny thing is if Bryant had taken any of the $200 million dollar extensions the Cubs have offered none of this would be an issue now.
baseball1010
The P.A. could fix a lot of the problem. Anyone who participates in the post season gets service time. They have to follow the CBA so they should be on the service time clock.