Kris Bryant - the MLB's top prospect - is tearing up spring training right now as he hopes to be the Chicago Cubs' starting third baseman on Opening Night against the St. Louis Cardinals in Apr. 5. However, there are two obstacles standing in his way.
The first being service time, which nearly everyone is probably aware of at this point. If the Cubs keep Bryant in the minors for 2-3 weeks at the beginning of the season then they will have him under an extra year of club control since the move wouldn't allow him to accrue a full year of service time at the major league level (172 days).
However, the MLB Players Association said they would be monitoring how the Cubs handle Bryant's situation in terms of when the team calls him up. MLBPA President Tony Clark said "it's in everyone's best interests to have the best players playing at any particular time" and "any rules that are in place that some may be using against the spirit of how they may have been designed, we don't believe (that's) in anyone's best interests."
However, rules are rules, and the MLBPA would need a strong case to force the Cubs into putting Bryant on the Opening Day roster. Perhaps their only hope would be if Chicago didn't have another third baseman that came close to Bryant's output in spring training. The 23-year-old is batting .500/.563/.1.429 with six runs scored, four home runs and six RBIs in six games.
Well, they do have someone putting up formidable numbers to give Bryant a run for his money. Fellow third baseman Mike Olt, who is projected to be the Opening Day starter, is slashing .333/.529/.833 with five runs scored, two home runs and three RBIs in six games as well. Additionally, Olt has experience at the major league level and that could also play a role in the Cubs' decision making because they have talked about Bryant's defense at the position as well as moving him elsewhere.
"Now, the Cubs have expressed that Bryant has work to do defensively at third base and they're also giving him reps in the outfield this spring," writes CBS Sports' Matt Snyder. "Seriously, though, for a corner bat, it would be pretty hard to convince the masses that defensive tweaks are keeping him down instead of service time."
But then again, we see players overachieve and underachieve during spring training every year, so it's really unknown if the MLBPA can do anything about it. Heck, Clayton Kershaw's ERA during the spring last year was a 9.20, which had no bearing on his 1.77 ERA during the regular season that won him NL MVP and Cy Young honors.
We'll be keeping an eye on this, but unless something drastic were to occur, don't expect to see Bryant with the Cubs until the latter part of April.
Anyway, here are some clips of Bryant CRUSHING home runs in spring training.
