Despite myriad trade rumors that have centered on him over the past several months, Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant told reporters (including Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune) that he’s still open to a contract extension with the team. “I’ve always said I’ve been open and willing to hear what (the Cubs) say and take it with open arms and consider everything that’s thrown my way,” Bryant said. “I think I’ve communicated that to them.” Bryant is scheduled to become a free agent next winter, but in the meantime, he’ll make $19.5MM this season. It doesn’t seem any team has jumped at the chance of taking on that type of money for Bryant – even though he’s a former MVP who has typically held his own, he had a difficult 2020 campaign. Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer suggested earlier this month that he expects Bryant to open 2021 with the club.
- It may have taken longer than expected for the Twins to re-sign designated hitter Nelson Cruz, whom they inked to a one-year, $13MM guarantee earlier this month. The Twins believed they’d keep Cruz throughout the process, though, as president of baseball operations Derek Falvey told MLB Network Radio on Thursday that “we passed on some other players” who could have prevented them from bringing back Cruz. The identities of those players aren’t known, but the Twins would have been hard-pressed to upgrade at DH over Cruz, who slashed an incredible .308/.394/.626 with 57 home runs in 735 plate appearances with the team from 2019-20.
- The Royals’ Hanser Alberto only received a minor league deal during the winter, though it sounds as if he has a good chance to earn a spot on their season-opening roster. Manager Mike Matheny called the addition of Alberto a “sneaky good signing” earlier this week, Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star writes. Alberto spent the previous two seasons with the Orioles before joining the Royals. Alberto didn’t hit for much power or draw many walks in Baltimore, but he did see quite a bit of time at two infield positions (second and third) and make life difficult on left-handed pitchers, against whom he slashed .394/.411/.532 in 280 trips to the plate.
- The White Sox have hired Todd Steverson as a special assistant to executive vice president Ken Williams, James Fegan of The Athletic tweets. Steverson spent 2014-19 as the team’s hitting coach – a role he held with the Athletics’ Triple-A affiliate last season. He’ll focus on scouting in his new job with the White Sox, per Fegan.
“Sneaky good” is how I’d describe that entire Royals’ team. They have a good shot at being the 3rd place team in the Central this season.
It is possible but I just do not think they will have enough starting pitching.
Definitely the biggest question mark but there’s a TON of upside there. I’m hoping they use Jakob Junis as an opener for Danny Duffy. The Minor signing was major (lol).
“There’s two or three potential all-stars in there.”
“Margaret Phelps will never allow that to happen.”
Rachel Phelps
Her either
Cups still work though
Sneaky Good at being bad and being fine with it.
Royals could even do better than that
If royals where in NL central, They’d be favorites to win division. I actually like their rotation a lot. They have a slew of young up and comers.
I think they’ll hang in central for the whole season. Not to impressed w twins offseason, Cleveland will not be as good as in past seasons and whitesox haven’t proven anything yet. Be a fun race to watch !
Cleveland will be better for the following reason.,,,,,,
The ball is being deadened some.
This is in response to the K, W, or HR that has taken over MLB for over 10-plus years; made watching the game boring and the players into robots instead of athletes.
It’s going to make launch angle into long fly balls. Less runs will be scored. Teams with pitching (the Indians are the best in MLB at developing their own pitchers), defense, baserunning, and strong fundamental play are going to become more important to a teams success. Francona is the best manager in professional baseball. He and his staff stress fundamental play.
I like the Royals as well – especially Dayton Moore. But the manager remains a bit of a problem.
The Sox hit a lot of home runs, but they also make good contact…. the deadening of the ball isn’t going to negatively affect Anderson, Madrigal, Abreu, Moncada, or Jimenez… I’m not sure the deadening of the ball is going to stop Robert from hitting home runs either when you consider his outrageous exit velocity… the Sox aren’t a team that is relying on launch angle… the entire lineup makes contact and hits to all fields…with the exception of Robert, Madrigal, Cease, and Kopech, I’d say that the young White Sox core has established what they can do at the MLB level
Wholeheartedly disagree. Matheny impressed last year. Not impressed with the White Sox as a whole. Twins look solid but the Royals have a shot. Their lineup is solid and if Singer and Bubic take a step and Lynch and Kowar join them it’ll be very interesting.
White Sox pen-Hendriks, Bummer, Marshall, Crochet–stellar.
I’d love to know what about the White Sox doesn’t impress you…
Their position players had the highest combined fWAR in baseball last year, and damn near all of them are young and improving – that includes giving a “full” season of AB’s to EE/Mazara. Abreu should probably come back down to Earth, but I’d argue a COVID-free Moncada more than outweighs that “loss” on his own.
Adding Lance Lynn to Giolito/Keuchel gives them one of the best top 3’s in baseball; all 3 finished top 7 in AL CY voting last year. Plus the 4&5 spots will be occupied by young, former top prospects with elite arm talent.
They also have a great, young bullpen that added the best reliever in baseball over the last 2 years and will get a full season from yet another elite arm, Garrett Crochet.
Maybe you’re just really, really hard to impress.
Add Heuer and Foster to that list too. The bullpen looks like one of the best in baseball.
Why do you crave so much respect for the team you follow from some stranger in a chat room. Self esteem hanging on every perceived slight? Like the blondie said to that snowman, let it go, man.
I agree. The White Sox have done an impressive job of executing the tear down and rebuild plan. The have a lot of young talent and have made some smart moves supplementing their young core. But how does Tony LaRussa fit in to that plan? He didn’t care for young players 30 years ago. I doubt he has spent the last 10 years figuring out ways to connect with new generation ball players. That hire was a head scratcher for me. I hope it doesn’t derail what Chicago has built.
Giolito-no hitter
Robert beast
Anderson great
Jimenez great
Define good shot. They certainly have a shot, but I wouldn’t call it a good one.
KB should’ve taken that $200m plus extension he was offered a few years back. He’s not going to sniff anywhere near that if he plays like he has the past few seasons.
In all fairness, a few seasons ago he looked like one of baseball’s premier players. Was 12th in wRC+, OPS, 9th in wOBA and 3rd in fWAR from 2015-2017. He won Rookie Of The Year and MVP in back to back seasons and put up his best wOBA, OPS, walk rate and strikeout rate in 2017. Things were trending upward for Bryant, so you can’t really blame him on passing that up because it looked like he could make much more in FA.
I think if he gets away from the Cubs, and a new club he might be an MVP type again. But I think he’s done in Chicago
Bryant’s main issue is he is always banged up with something it seems. Even if he blows up and has a great yr it’s hard to trust him remaining heathy and his effective as he ages. I can’t imagine he gets close to $200 million.
And I think it would have been closer to $230 million, right? I thought the offer state he would keep his remaining arbitration years and then the extension would automatically kick in afterwards.
But that seemed like a long time ago so I might not be rememberinf it correctly.
Bryant still the best hitter on the team. Slash lines have been solid save last year. Lots of doubles and homers except the year he was was hurt and last year. a lot of hits every year. Ernie Banks slash line looks same as Bryants career line
And Juan Pizarro passed away last week. played with Sox 1961-66 and with Cubs during the Joe Pepitone years from 1970-73 i think , maybe just until 1972 with Cubs. Two time allstar with Sox and in 1964 finished tied for 19th in MVP voting. He was a real good pitcher who played for 17 or 18 years. Sox got Wilbur Wood for him in a trade with the Pirates after the 1966 season. Everyone respected Pizarro as he was that good.
I remember that dude. Appeared at a bat day at Wrigley back in the day. One of my earliest memories at a game. Back when fans used to chant we want a hit. Good times
Bryant cannot hit pitches low and away. Pitchers know this. Why do you think he hit .200 last year? Throw him sliders and you will watch him walking back to the dugout after striking out every at bat.
Of course you CAN blame Bryant for being greedy #1225. Boras got in his head and he walked away from generational wealth and chose to risk it. Bad call and he can be blamed for making a bad call.
That offer never happened
Yeah, I don’t put much weight on 2020 stats but his downturn in late 2019 makes it look more like a trend than a fluke. As 1225 says he has shown he can hit better and I hope he does look like a 20M player this year.
That would be true but there was never an offer like that. It was rebuked years ago.
No “official” offer. Number were floated and Bryant made it clear he was heading to free agency and that he was planning to break the bank. Kris Bryant gambled and lost! He absolutely could have gotten $200-250 million from the Cubs a couple of years back, and they would have been happy to give it to him. He made it clear that he wanted to stick it to the Cubs over service time, and he wanted to be the latest Scott Boras break the bank client. He gambled and lost! That is why he is now so “open” to an extension with the Cubs. He knows the Cubs are the only team that will pay him. He is looking at a 1-year, $10 million prove it deal next year if the the Cubbies don’t come through. Nobody else in baseball is paying for an aging player who can no longer hit, and cannot stay healthy.
Jake tried the same thing his first time around with our Cubs. Then he signed with the Phillies for less money than the Cubs offered! LoL
Barry Im not anti player in any regards but I must admit I like the fact that the Cubs won this battle against Bryant here
So dynasty, why don’t Cubs players want to stay in that organization? They all can’t wait to bolt when free agency hits, perhaps besides Rizzo. What don’t we know? On the other side of town, Abreu basically refused to go anywhere and waited on the White Sox to get around to his current contract.
Why do you like the fact that the Cubs won here? Because by winning it means Bryant didn’t play as well as he hoped, which also means the Cubs didn’t do as well as they hoped. I’m not saying. One World Series is not enough, but I’m sure the team and fans were hoping for more then that. And now that we’re in the now, because Bryant lost his gamble, the Cubs can’t trade him for as much. So it’s kind of a lose/lose.
Whether he accepted the extension or not, the best thing for both sides would have been for him to do as well as possible.
100 percent correct they both needed up losing out big time. Boras is a gambler with others money. He lost twice.
Facts!
Whiff- I’ll be rambling here. Right now, I think part of it has to do with the atmosphere. Jed and Ricketts are showing more of a deconstruction mode as opposed to rebuilding. Actually, it seems they’ve been at it since our WS victory. Team chemistry is important. Many players are more oriented to team unity to be competitive in the NL; i.e., they care more about helping the group or team to succeed than about individual successes. I think that the Cubs Organization is presently geared more to big ball home run derby entertainment than winning baseball. So, the old baseball adage keeps ringing true: a group of average players who participate together as a team will most always defeat a group of phenoms who play to the stands as individuals. I suspect that the WS victory brought out celebrity status for a few players and thus sprouted a number of “me first” guys who play to the stands. Team chemistry came in second and continues. Team players tend to not like it and look to leave. I ask myself;. “Do the Cubs really care about winning?”. Not really. Otherwise they’d have filled the holes; leadoff hitter; front line pitching staff; second baseman, outfielders, etc. It’s all about creating and building winning chemistry. Take the Yankees for example.
If the Mets trade for Kris Bryant they are making a colossal mistake. My National League team is the Cubs. lst, he is owed too much money. 2nd, He always gets hurt and try’s to play thru it. 3rd, he definitely is not a NY type of player. If the Yankees traded for him I would totally be peeved! Keep him as far away from NY’s best team as possible. Mets really should steer clear and get someone else for 3rd base. Anybody but him.
I do agree with most of this dynasty. The Cubs refusal to address the leadoff hitter the last few years, was just a blatant disregard for winning. In 2016 the Cubs had a leadoff hitter and it allowed the entire lineup to flow. Heck, anytime the Cubs have ever been good they had a good leadoff hitter, eg Bobby Dernier.
I’m actually surprised Jake came back. According to his side of the story he was offered the same contract Yu Darvish. But asked to think about it and 24 hrs later the Cubs signed Darvish. He said the Cubs didn’t tell him there was a time limit let alone 24 hrs. He also said in hindsight he would have taken it if he knew the clock was ticking.
It seems like that was an Epstein flaw bc it seems like Hoyer is doing a better job with communication. At least that’s what I got from reading about Bryant’s Mets trade story.
I tend to take what Arietta said about that 24-hour decision time frame with a grain of salt. Boras and others were negotiating on both sides of the table. They aren’t going to muddle the negotiation for a multi-million dollar contract over timing restrictions. Anyway it was humorous that Arietta/Boras held out for less moneybin Philly.
@Cubs Dynasty
There is a lot of rambling here, some good points, some bad (my opinion).
First, I think it’s a crock to say NL players are more oriented towards team unity. Kris Bryant was drafted by the Cubs, Mike Trout was drafted by the Angels. That doesn’t mean Kris Bryant is a ra ra team player and Mike Trout cares about himself.
I don’t think the World Series made guys “me first” as much as, just like the Cubs, these guys all thought they’d only get better. Let’s say Bryant was offered $200M. Even as much as that is to the rest of us, there is nobody after 2015 that didn’t expect Bryant to eventually get a better offer than that. $300+ was expected because we all thought he’d be as good or better than that year. Not accepting an offer is not “me first” it’s business. He bet on himself. He may end up losing that bet, but he wasn’t some selfish POS for betting on himself.
Do Cubs owners want to win? Yes. For a price. Like all other owners. I agree that Ricketts blew this. I blame Theo too. For as much praise as he gets for breaking the drought, he doesn’t get enough criticism for only winning one. I know even one is hard, but again, this team and fan base expected more. And like you said, sometimes glaring holes were left infilled.
Finally, I don’t think the Yankees have some magical winning culture as much as they consistently outspend other teams. When they need a starter they don’t grab Jose Quintana or Carlos Rodon and the winning culture magically morphs them into all stars….no, they go spend and get Gerrit Cole!
I agree. Teams will always offer less, and players will always ask for more. It reminds me of, well, everyone else on the planet. People like to ascribe morality lessons to what likely amounts to two accountants disagreeing.
Yes, good thoughts kevinoc81.
Thanks
The dude was literally worth 4.8 WAR in 2019…
RemovePitcheretc.
4.8 WAR ?? Citation please.
Baseball reference has 3.7 WAR in 2019 !
FanGraphs has him at 4.8 WAR.
Bryant and $10 million to the rays for yandy diaz and brent honeywell. Who says no?
The Rays because I don’t think any of their players are paid close to $10 million.
Kiermaier gets $11 million after that it’s Tsutsugo at $7.5 i believe
@Rsox Kiermaier has officially changed his name to Mr. Glass.
The Rays because that would be a horrible trade for them.
Tampa!
Pretty amazing how Cruz just keeps slugging. It’s almost like he’s found some anti aging serum….
Dude didn’t enter his prime till 32
Could have been taken out of context, but why does Falvey sound salty for getting one of the best DHs in MLB for only 1/13M? If he’s anywhere near where he’s been the last few years, that’s a steal of a deal and worth “passing on a few players” that could replace him.
Cream and the clear?
It never made sense to trade Bryant.
1. The Cubs are still trying to compete and stand a good chance to do so as the Central lacks a clear front runner even if St. Louis may be the favorite. If he bounces back and they’re good, you go for it and say thanks for 2016 in the winter.
2. Bryant’s been injured and underperformed the past few years. Makes more sense for a team wait until the deadline to see if Bryant is healthy and productive. At that point, they have a better idea of what Bryant they’re getting, won’t have to pay him near $20 million, and still get him for the postseason (which is the whole reason you’d acquire him anyways.)
4.8 WAR in 2019. How has he “underperformed the past few years???”
Remove-etc.
Bryant has massively underperformed according to baseball reference.
2015 – 2017. Avg 6.1 WAR
2018 – 1.9, 2019 – 3.7 2020 – 0.4
The best spin on the last 3 years is he was hurt except for 2019.
What that means is he’s now got a recurring injury history and in a ‘normal’ season he’s only 2/3 as good as he was on average for 3 prior healthy seasons.
That is 3 years of injuries or significant decline. 3.5 to 4.5 WAR is still a good player, but no guarantee or even prediction of actually getting that healthy performance is being made by anyone.
He’ll be 30 years old as a FA. No one is signing up for a huge contract offer today. If I were the Cubs I’d have traded him rather than pay $20M where the best case scenario is winning the division and going nowhere in the playoffs.
The best-case scenario is a World Series win. Strange things can, and often do, happen in the playoffs.
The Cubs are absolutely in a rebuild! The Cubs for whatever reason are still refusing to tell their fan base that they are in a rebuild. Cubs fans were promised “Multiple” titles from the last rebuild which did produce 1 ring. Theo Epstein had an absolutely epically bad run in free agency. Jason Heyward, Tyler Chatwood, Craig Kimbrel, etc. Coupled with some horrendous Theo Epstein trades ….. Eloy Jimenez, Dylan Cease for Jose Quintana. Gleyber Torres …… I know nobody likes to criticize Theo, but he was AWFUL with trades and free agency and put the franchise where it is today. A complete rebuild should have been started a year ago. Farm system is now bad and has very little pitching. How are you going to build a contender? Paying starting pitchers $40 million per year in free agency? Farm system has no position players. More $30-40 million contracts. The Cubs and a bunch of other teams need to realize that a complete rebuild is the only way forward, and you must overstock the farm system.
It doesn’t seem to me that the Cubs are trying very hard to be a good team. I’m not sure they’ll be able to re-sign more than one of their free agents. I could see them finishing as low as fourth in the central. I’m pretty down on Bryant and don’t see him staying a Cub.
Small wonder no one seems overly interested in Kris Bryant at $19.5m for 2021.
He projects to about 3 wins, and seems far more likely to be worth 0-1 WAR than he does 5-6 WAR. How many teams:
1) need a 3Bman
2) have 20m to spend
3) can’t think of a better way to spend that 20m?
Even a superficially obvious candidate like the Mets would be foolish to trade a bag of balls for Bryant when what they really needed to spend 20m on was Rosenthal in the bullpen and Odorizzi instead of Taijuan Walker in the rotation.
The upgrade to Bryant over Davis / Guillorme / Villar / McNeil would be nonsensical. 1 WAR, maybe, for $20m? I can see Alderson being this obtuse, but a competent Mets GM would dismiss picking up Bryant out of hand.
Kris Bryant’s fall from grace is a perfect example why Tatis’ deal is so risky.
5+ years ago, he was on pace for a 250M+ free agent deal (the big number at the time was 25-29M). Would anyone give Bryant 250M for his free agent years now? Did anyone predict his huge and quick fall from grace?
Bryant and Tatis is a bad comparison because Tatis would have been 5 years younger than Bryant when he reached free agency before the extension. Also, before you completely write him off, Bryant is not a bad player – he was still worth about 5 WAR in 2019(I don’t think his 2020 numbers will be repeated). Plus, a 5 WAR/year player Tatis’ age would still get a contract around $250-300 million in free agency, so even if Tatis pulls a Bryant and regresses a little, he would still get paid about the same as his new extension.
You’re lying to yourself. No one wants to pay Bryant 19M for 1 year but teams are going to give him anything close to 250M+? Get out of here. A player has 1 truly bad season, or one bad injury, they are no where close to a 300M or 250M earner. Everything has to go PERFECT for Tatis for this to be a bargain for SD. It could happen. But what are the chances he becomes the next Mookie Betts, no regression?
Again. You are assuming Tatis is going to have the absolute highest arc and then proclaiming BARGAIN. Look at other 10+ year deals. That’s his free agent years bought out. How many are over 30M AAV? That’s his FA AAV. Tatis is on a very short list
I never said that Bryant would get $250M+. I said that if Bryant was 5 years younger, and he puts up numbers similar to 2019 next year(which I think he’s capable of), he would be looking at a contract around $250-300 million. He won’t get anywhere near that because of his age.
Tatis has put up about 7 WAR over 143 games played. That is MVP caliber production at age 20 and 21. Assuming that he doesn’t get any better, he would have gotten way more than $340 million in free agency. And even if he gets a little bit worse and turns out to be a 5 WAR/year type of player, he would still have been in line for a a Machado-sized contract when he turns 25.
Tatis doesn’t need to be Mookie Betts for this to be a good contract – he just needs to be an All-Star for a good portion of his prime, which is definitely on the low end of his projections when you consider just how rare it is for a player to be MVP-caliber when they are 21 years old.
I misread your point with Bryant and 250. I concede that
However I do not agree with the conclusion you just made. You guys paid Tatis 10/306 for his post arbitration years. Padre fans can throw around 24M, but the reality is the early control years throw that way out of wack. Who cares that he makes 1M in his final pre arb year, other than people who want to toss a bs aav around? I care about the control gained. The 10 FA years. Padres are paying 30.6M a year for his 10 FA years. He needs to be worth that. That is not just a couple time all star. Who has gotten more than 30M AAV for 10 years? Trout and Mookie. That’s it. That’s more than Machado. More than Harper
For this contract to be a win, he has to be in line for a Machado deal at 25. That’s a minimum. Baseball does not have a high enough inflation rate to assume anyone is getting 40M for 10 years suddenly in 4 years time. We will see people match trout before jumping ahead of him imho. They are going to have to sell they are a better investment than trout and good luck with that. The high aav comes with fewer years, IE Bauer.
Tatis has to be at least Machado good, and really his contract is approaching Betts and Trout level of his FA years payment in both length and AAV combo
Sorry you do not get to use his pre arb and arb salaries to deflate how much they are paying him to stay off the market. That’s the free agent dollars. You’re banking on him being at least a top 10 player, producing like a top 5 player, for those free agent years. No pressure on a 21 year old. No reason to think that’s a risky move from a team perspective. Sure. Only 2.3x larger than any deal signed for a player with his service time
For Tatis to be worth his contract, he has to be HEALTHY, for all 14 years. There is a reason Cal Ripken is celebrated.
Lurking7 hours ago
Kris Bryant’s fall from grace is a perfect example why Tatis’ deal is so risky.
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I’m not so sure about that. Let’s say you value WAR at $8M per. Then Tatis’ contract expects 42.5 WAR over the next 14 years.
Bryant has already earned 28.4 WAR in 6 years. That means he has to earn 14.1 WAR over the next 8 years. He will almost certainly earn that.
One of the things that a lot of folks miss his the age ranges. Tatis is signed from 22 onwards. To compare him to other players, you have to start from their age 22 seasons.
The Cubs would likely have been better off with the long-term contract.
I think a better way to look at it is Tatis needs to earn 38 WAR for the 10 free agent years at $304 million. The Padres are getting Tatis for peanuts in the first four years and likely at a better salary than if he went thru the arbitration process. Also, even if they had not agreed to the extension, he would still probably be a good value during his control years.
Once again Joe, stop using his value from his already under contract years to justify the massive overpay the Padres gave him in his FA years
The Padres didn’t gain anything but cost certainty in his first 4 years of the deal. They were already getting that value. Those years being a bargain do not mean they needed to give him Machado+Inflation money
I was comparing Tatis to what KB would’ve looke like, had he signed a 14-year contract at age 22.
That said, how much do you think Tatis would make in arbitration over the next 4 years? $60M? If so, that makes his extension $280M/10. The length is certainly a risk, but if he stays good for the next four years, $280M/10 will be a bargain. Story and Lindor are very likely to exceed that.
Lindor exceeds that ONLY IF he has a great 2021. Otherwise his breakout year looks like a fluke more than an outbreak. He easily could be capped at 250. Story probably does not with his health woes+ coors stigma. Neither does Correa or Seager for the same health reasons
So the best free agent class for SS probably ever and it’s reasonable to predict 1/5 beats 280M. Which is a flawed number to look at, btw. But you’re happy that’s a steal??
Anyway you try to artificially deflate the amount the Padres are paying to keep Tatis off the market, it’s still a massive extension comparable, quite favorably, to any of his recent peers
In reality, his free agent seasons cost SD 306M. That’s Machado plus interest. His total dollars is Harper’s mega deal+ interest. Both set records for largest contracts when signed. Again. Even though this includes a pre arb year, He STILL BEATS both those contracts with total size and total FA dollars. There’s no discount
Any number to 280 is your twisted way of pretending his pre arb season should be valued at the same level as his late arb years or his free agent years. Even if you insist on this number, you gave him Nolan Arenado money. That’s a steal? After 140 games. You’re a joke if you keep insisting yes
Lurking1 hour ago
you gave him Nolan Arenado money. That’s a steal? After 140 games. You’re a joke if you keep insisting yes
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1-I challenge you to find out where I said it was a ‘steal’. Don’t bother wasting your time; I never said it. I said it was a fair contract.
2-Of course I am going to give him Arenado money. It’s early, but Tatis has a 7.3 bWAR/650.
3-But, more importantly, why are you taking this so personally? Some people like the contract, some dislike it, and some feel it is about right. It is okay for us to disagree on it.
There’s really no way to say it’s a good deal for San Diego, unless you are using your nonsense logic like claiming 24M aav is a valid way to break the contract down. Anyone with any basic baseball knowledge knows earning ability in his first 6 years vs the rest of his career is astronomically different
2nd. Don’t quote a stat at me on a per 650 AB basis when he doesn’t even have 650 AB in his career. Let alone in a single season. It’s the stupidest example of small sample size ever. There’s no reason any sane person claims he deserves a contract anywhere near Arenado, Machado, Harper or Betts. And his contract slides right into that mix. Each of those guys had 6-7 YEARS of proof that they could handle 162 games with high level of production. Tatis has never proven this. Never. It took one down year from Arenado for many on here to claim he’s an overpaid albatross. You haven’t even see Tatis successful adjust to mlb pitchers. His career is the definition of infancy. And you are paying him in line, in total dollar & total free agent dollars, with some of the biggest contracts in mlb history
He’s the THIRD guy EVER to get 10+ Free agent years guaranteed at more than 30M AAV. Trout, Betts, Tatis. End list. Bargain?
For every superstar, there’s 5 guys like Myers, or Kris Bryant who look like superstars early and just become good. They are banking 14 years of Tatis on less than a years worth of data. How asinine
You only feel personally attacked because you have been the most outspoken claiming it’s a good deal, with faulty logic. I will call out bad logic. If you don’t like it, use better logic or keep your opinion to yourself. Put it online, I’m free to rip it to shreds
You dropped your SS claim mighty quickly. It’s clear you will say anything to make your opinion look justified. Anyone looking at this without tinted glasses can see how crazy this deal is. He HAS to become at least Machado by year 5. Or else they’re overpaying his FA years…
Lurking1 hour ago
You only feel personally attacked because you have been the most outspoken claiming it’s a good deal
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Once again, show me where I am the most outspoken about claiming it is a good deal.
And, once again, don’t bother wasting your time, because it’s not there.
I like the deal. You don’t. You are treating my liking of the deal as a personal attack. You need to get a grip. There are no rules out there that says everyone must agree with you.
Nah I’m really not. I’m just destroying your argument. I’m not personally attacked, nor am I personally attacking you. I’ve just showed your logic to be consistently flawed and biased. You feel attacked, once again, because I have repeatedly taken your attempts to justify the deal and showed why that logic is flawed. Proving you wrong is not attacking you buddy. Calling your logic flawed or nonsense is not a personal attack. It’s calling your argument illogical.
Btw, your 30+ comments on this thread yelling how great the deal is, changing your argument as people call out your logic, is why you are one of the biggest outspoken jokes of this thread
Lurking8 hours ago
Btw, your 30+ comments on this thread yelling how great the deal is,
=========================================================
1-It’s is 6 comments on this thread.
2-2 were generic, 1 was a discussion with someone discussing how a hypothetical 14-year Bryant would compare to Tatis’ contract.
3-3 were comments asking why you are so obsessed and angry about me liking the Tatis contract.
Yet another post where you ditch an argument you tried to make becuase I destroyed it, and now you’re just whining
You’ve given up trying to defend the contract you’re just crying people aren’t being your friends. You really proved your point!
Sorry, obsessed, angry person. On the MLB-R poll, 38% rated this an A for SD, and 25% rated it a B. So 63% like this for SD. Only 16% rated it a D or F, so you are in a very small minority.
Why does that fact make you so angry?
KB I used to like him now I just wish he would just shut up and play. I really haven’t liked him ever since he made the comment about St.Louis!
People are so thin skinned. He called St Louis boring. The horror. A player can’t show a little personality anymore without people needing their underpants surgically removed from their crack.
Bryant is one of the 2-3 most overrated players in baseball
After Reading the comments on this thread, you’d think the guy is complete garbage. Who is over-rating him?
Fans love to use the word overrated to describe good players, great players, even HOF payers that they don’t like. It means they don’t really have a strong argument, so they’ll toss the term overrated into the discussion. It’s a nonsense word because it’s subjective. If you’re debating someone about a player and they toss in “he’s overrated,” then you’ve won. They don’t have anything better. Overrated is an overrated word.
Here is reality about Kris Bryant. Unless a player asks Scott Boras to get something done with their present club because they want to stay such as Greg Maddox, Bernie Williams and Zach Britton did, Boras clients will usually go to whatever team will pay them the most. Bryant was bitter about the Service Time issue and chose not to do so. The Cubs do bear some responsibility in this as well (they could have avoided this entire issue by playing fair and not manipulating service time ( like the Padres did NOT do with Tatis), and they would not be paying Bryant $19.5m this year when he is on the decline, because he would be gone after last year, or maybe he would have been happy, played well and signed long term in Chicago?).
Both you and Bryant may not like what happened, but as the MLBPA agreed to those rules, what the Cubs did was absolutely “fair.”
I agree it was legal otherwise Kelenic could demand legal remedies against the Mariners based on “Restraint of Trade” But it does not mean it was fair either. Cubs are a third place team in that division ( because the Reds and Pirates are that bad) so they will likely be selling Bryant for “Pennies on the dollar” otherwise it will be nothing after the season. As for Bryant, unless he rebounds he will end up with less then the $19.5m he will make this season.
Is it service time “manipulation,” or is it service time “maximization?” I guess it depends on which side you ask. We all know it goes on, the players know it goes on, so it’s up to them to come up with a solution to include in the next CBA. In the end, as a fan, I want to see top prospects break camp with their teams, but also as a fan, I want my team to maximize and hold that player as long as possible, so I don’t have an issue if they keep him down a few extra weeks. Hopefully this gets resolved in the coming CBA.
Glad you put “fair’ in quotes. It doesn’t really exist. There are simply rules. No player in history has ever said, ‘I know the rules say I am entitled to get paid no matter what, but my performance stunk and I am giving back the money’.
They don’t and they shouldn’t, because the rules say they don’t have to.
Hiring back Steverson is such a Reinsdorf-esque move. Guy didn’t do much as a hitting coach, but he worked for the White Sox, so he is obviously qualified for other roles within the organization. Loyalty is good, but Reinsdorf has waaaaaay too much.
I’m sure the Twins and Cruz had to go back and forth over the numbers a bit but I think it’s pretty clear they just parked their negotiations for months while waiting for the dumb league and dumb union to figure out what to do with the DH for 21.
Bryant slashed .282/.382/.521 his last full season in 2019, posting a strong 903 OPS and a 132 OPS+, which is right in line with is career 134 OPS+. Unless his 2020 injuries are chronic, he should be fine this year, setting himself up for a nice payday somewhere. In retrospect, he should be thankful the Cubs did manipulate his service time; otherwise, he’d have entered free agency this offseason. That wouldn’t have gone well.
I don’t see a $200M payday, unless he totally blows the doors off this year. I’d look toward George Springer’s 6/150 as a guideline. Bryant will be a year younger than Springer when hitting free agency, although Springer plays the more demanding defensive position, but Bryant can offer multi-position flexibility. He has a nice contract coming.
RobM, what’s wrong with you? You’re making too much sense in this thread.
Bryant is definitely not a NY type of player, but if I was the Nationals or Phillies I would at least take a look at him, especially if my Cubbies pay at least half of his salary this season. The Phils or the Nats shouldn’t have to pay a Significant package as far as prospects either.
You can see it in kB he hasn’t been the same beast since he was hit in the head 2 years ago it took RF Who’s tough as it come a year to get his hitting last year.