Kris Bryant Signs with the Cubs

In Commentary And Analysis, News And Rumors, Transactions by dmick8982 Comments

Bryant_KrisOur long regional month of boredom is over. Jim Callis is reporting that second overall pick Kris Bryant has agreed to terms with the Cubs for exactly what was prescribed by slot value, $6,708,400. Jon Heyman appears to have gotten the story first, but Scott Boras neglected to fill him in on the details, instead emphasizing the "record-setting" nature of the contract, which means very little since the current slotting system was put into place last year. Paul Sullivan gets honorable mention as he was perhaps the first to officially report, but he was imprecise, and will get no link from me.

Cubs Lose?

The Cubs had first overall pick Mark Appel first on their draft board, as well, and he signed with the Astros for $6.34 million weeks ago, and has already made two minor league starts. For the second year in a row, the 'Stros have performed admirably in acquiring talent and getting it signed cheaply. (Though if I were an Astros fan, I would not be happy watching what Byron Buxton is up to these days). No one doubted that an agreement would be reached, but Bryant appears to have gotten the better end of the negotiations. The Cubs were offering only in the neighborhood of $6 million about two weeks ago, and have apparently gone up considerably since then.

Implications

That Bryant signed for the full slot value means that the Cubs will not be able to do as much with later round picks. They did manage to get Tyler Alamo in the fold (24th-rounder), and my guess is that 12th-rounder Trevor Clifton will sign soon. Clifton won't get the $570k he was hoping for, however, as the Cubs can now only offer ~$441k (less whatever Alamo and every other post-10th rounder signed for over $100k). Based on the limited funds left to the Cubs, I doubt we see any other high-schoolers sign, unless they are really having second thoughts about this whole college thing. 25th-rounder Marcus Doi, for one, has turned down the Cubs' offer. The signing deadline is Friday, so we will  know one way or the other on everyone else in the next two days.

All potential missed opportunities later in the draft are extremely minor compared to getting Bryant to sign, however, as first-rounders dominate major league baseball, especially the first pick or two. It will be good to see him start getting into game action.

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  6. Nate

    Yu Darvish goes to DL. I think Texas has to get serious about Garza. I’d rather the Cubs sign Garza and trade F7 to Texas for Profar. Is that too rediculous? What is a fair return for F7. If the Cubs got Profar, they could trade Castro for pitching.

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  7. GW

    Baseball America’s 2013 College Player of the Year, Bryant led NCAA Division I with 31 homers, more than 223 of the 296 teams at that level this season and more than any player has hit since college bats were toned down three years ago. He also topped Division I in runs (80), walks (66), total bases (187) and slugging (.820) while batting .329 and setting a San Diego career record with 54 homers. He’s the highest draft pick in Toreros history, outdoing Brian Matusz, who went fourth overall to the Orioles in 2008.

    Bryant was the best power hitter available in the 2013 draft and the best college power hitter in years. His arm strength and patience at the plate are two more assets, and he’s also an average runner wtih good athleticism for a 6-foot-5, 215-pounder. He played third base at San Diego but may wind up in right field in the long run.

    http://www.baseballamerica.com/draft/2013-mlb-draft-signings-central/

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  11. bubblesdachimp

    I was pretty anti Bryant… Have come to the conclusion he was a better pick than even Appel

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  18. Myles

    If we get Clifton and Alamo still, I’ll be very happy despite all this hand-wringing. I don’t begrudge Bryant at all, regardless. He should start the season at A, see A+ by August 1.

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  20. GW

    @ Myles:

    yeah, I tried to emphasize that these were very minor complaints in the grand scheme of things, especially given clifton’s aversion to academics.

    hoyer says bryant will probably start in boise.

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  25. Rizzo the Rat

    Remember in 2011 when Pujols was off to a slow start, and then heated up against the Cubs? I’m feeling déjà vu.

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  28. Myles

    GW wrote:

    @ Myles:
    yeah, I tried to emphasize that these were very minor complaints in the grand scheme of things, especially given clifton’s aversion to academics.
    hoyer says bryant will probably start in boise.

    That’s interesting.

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  43. GW

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  55. Rizzo the Rat

    Prior to today, the Cubs had scored more runs than they allowed (by one). The universe has a way of course correcting itself, I guess.

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  57. Suburban kid

    SVB wrote:

    Can’t believe I’m moving to South Carolina.

    I didn’t think they needed roadkill scrapers in SC since good carcasses don’t last long down there?

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  63. Rice Cube

    @ WaLi:
    The gist is that Mitch Williams on MLB Network was talking about the ramifications of not pitching outside and then showed a video of Brandon McCarthy taking a liner to the noggin. So Brandon had some fun with it with his followers, lots of good retweets.

    Long story short, “this is what happens” is now a Twitter meme (dying laughing)

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  64. Rice Cube

    @ dmick89:
    We kept the original domain to host our podcast and to do silly crap with. Julie invited us to join about a month ago so most of our “regular” content goes to CN these days, but I don’t like how CN doesn’t allow for a lot of customizability.

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  67. Aisle424

    Agreed.

    This is why Cubs management — Hendry specifically — always talks about contending. You have to in this market. Can you imagine them saying “we’re going young and rebuilding”? How many season tickets would that sell in 2012?

    by Al Yellon on Jul 25, 2011 11:36 AM CDT upreply

    (dying laughing)
    (dying laughing)
    (dying laughing)

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  69. WenningtonsGorillaCock

    SVB wrote:

    Can’t believe I’m moving to South Carolina.

    You’ll only be a short drive from Asheville, NC which probably has the highest number of breweries per capita of any city in the US. Enjoy!

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  75. Aisle424

    @ dmick89:

    I just stumbled on that quote in an old post and it made me crack up. He was convinced the season ticket holders would bolt if the team was honest about a true rebuild, but completely failed to grasp that the wait list is what made that not matter. One way or other the tickets would sell and here we are two years later with 100 losses last year and at least another 90 this year (and I remain confident they can reach 100 again) and they’re announcing crowds no lower than 24,000 because of the season ticket holders not going anywhere.

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  76. EnricoPallazzo

    Aisle424 wrote:

    He was convinced the season ticket holders would bolt if the team was honest about a true rebuild, but completely failed to grasp that the wait list is what made that not matter.

    i wonder how true this will be moving forward. i was 51,000 last year; i just checked and i’m now at 21,000. just for the hell of it, i put my name on the waitlist again and my new spot is 101,000. if the waitlist attrition rate increases from 30k/season to 50k/season, it will be dried up in 2 years. i think this increase in attririon rate is feasible or maybe even conservative, given that most people on the list put there name there because they didn’t really anticipate getting offered season ticekts for at least several years. it took me like 5 years to go from 55k to 51k and then 1 year to move up to 21k…

    not really sure what my point is except that i think the waitlist will be gone by 2015. hopefully this doesn’t change the rebuilding plans but i could see rickets/thoyer maybe getting (more) desperate if that waitlist disappears.

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  78. EnricoPallazzo

    @ Rice Cube:

    yeah exactly, it probably won’t be an issue IF there’s an upswing. my point is, that could be the difference between the FO, say, trading garza for prospects vs extending him just so next year isn’t perceived as another step backwards. i hope they continue to make long-term moves but i could see how losing 30k people off of your season ticket waitlist in one year could cause the FO to revert to tribune-style short-sightedness.

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  80. EnricoPallazzo

    anyone have a handle on how many season-ticket holders gave up their seats last year? just curious as to how many of the 30k that left the waitlist actually signed up for tickets. i’m sure this isn’t public information for obvious reasons but i don’t know if there’s some way to estimate this.

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  81. Suburban kid

    @ EnricoPallazzo:
    In October 2011 I was 13,269
    In December 2012 they invited me to view seat selections
    Now, I just went to look and it seems you have to have an account number to look up your place. It’s possible I was kicked off the list when I ignored them last year, but I’ve sent an email to find out for sure.

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