MLB and Cubs Hoping to Resolve Ridiculous Kris Bryant Service-Time Manipulation Issue

Remember back in 2015 when Kris Bryant was a stud prospect for the Chicago Cubs and should've made the team out of Spring Training, but they kept him in the minors to "work on his defense" for a grand total of...seven games?

The Cubs won't admit it, but the only reason they did so was to manipulate his service time, giving the franchise an extra year of control before his eventual free agency.

Well, neither Bryant nor his agent Scott Boras were fans of the move back then, which is why the Cubs and Major League Baseball are holding a grievance hearing to resolve Bryant's dispute with the organization as it pertains to his service time.

When a player reaches 172 days during a season, it counts as a full season. Well, Bryant has four years and 171 days of service time, making him free agent after the 2021 season instead of 2020. If he'd been promoted one day earlier, he'd become a free agent after next season. Basically as egregious as one of these cases can get.

The Cubs can talk about Bryant being called up on that exact date because Cubs starting third baseman (at the time) Mike Olt fractured his wrist, but even if that hadn't happened, Bryant wasn't going to spend much longer at Triple-A.

It'll be interesting to see what the end result is and what further ramifications come of this case, but sadly, service-time manipulation has been running rampant throughout the sport. This is a bigger issue MLB needs to tackle, and perhaps Bryant and Boras can set the precedent.