The Chicago Cubs didn’t wait too long into the season to summon Kris Bryant and Addison Russell to form half of their infield, but they waited long enough to affect the players major league service time and gain an extra year of control over their future.
By waiting until April 17 to promote third baseman Bryant and April 21 to call up second baseman Russell, the Cubs will have them through the 2021 season instead of the 2020 season before they can become free agents.
All right, we know that. We have known that since Bryant’s status became a major issue in spring training. Russell sort of slid in quietly behind Bryant because he didn’t have the splashy spring Bryant had. But there are two things we don’t know:
- Had the Cubs put Bryant and Russell on their major league roster and in their lineup from day one of the season, might the team have a better record and be in a better position in the National League Central standings than their 25-21 and second place entering the weekend?
- If the Cubs violated no rule or agreement and clubs generally violate no rule or agreement by keeping players in the minors longer than is seemingly necessary, why won’t they just come out and tell the news media and the fans the real reason for it, that by letting players languish in the minors an extra 12 days or two months or however long, they gain extended control over their free agency and their salary arbitration status?
Instead of telling the truth, they say the players need additional time to work on their defense or their bunting or putting on their socks correctly or whatever. No matter who the player is or which team it is, the story is the same, as if the extra 12 days Bryant spent in the minors made a difference in his play and made him a better player.
The general managers and others who follow the script, which presumably comes straight out of 245 Park Avenue, may not be guilty of violations of the collective bargaining agreement, but they sound as guilty as sin. Their excuses are simply not believable.
I tried reaching several officials Friday to see if anyone would fess up, but I received no return calls from Theo Epstein, the Cubs’ president of baseball operations; Jed Hoyer, the Cubs’ general manager, or Dan Halem, the chief legal officer for Major League Baseball.
Commissioner Rob Manfred called back but declined to comment on what general managers or others say or don’t say and why. But my mention of Dennis Lamp elicited a response. It was a 1986 grievance by Lamp, a Toronto pitcher, that led to the ruling that is generally cited as the justification for the clubs’ being allowed to keep the Bryants and the Russells in the minors.
Lamp had a bonus provision in his contract based on the number of relief appearances he made. As the season reached the final month, it was obvious that Lamp would achieve the bonus level, and the Blue Jays stopped using him so he wouldn’t.
In ruling for the Blue Jays, the arbitrator, George Nicolau, said he wasn’t going to say when a manager should use a pitcher. The clubs interpreted that reasoning to mean they had a right to make roster decisions, and the union has never challenged their position.
But when I brought up the Lamp decision, Manfred said, “Our view of the world is not just based on Dennis Lamp but also on collective bargaining at the negotiating table.”
The service-time issue has been a topic of discussion in labor negotiations but has never been resolved. It’s an issue that has probably been sacrificed to other matters the union felt were more important to its members. Minor leaguers are not union members until they are put on a team’s 40-man roster, and in most cases they don’t achieve that status until they reach the majors.
In fact, management officials argue that the union shouldn’t even fight for service-time protection for the Kris Bryants because if they are promoted to the majors, players who are already union members by virtue of their major-league status would be demoted and lose service time.
Union officials understand that argument but don’t buy it. They are concerned for all players, knowing that the Kris Bryants will eventually be union members and having them undermined even before they gain membership is not good for anybody.
The subject is certain to be on the table for next year’s negotiations, and given the Bryant development the union is expected to take a harder stance on it.
But what about the integrity aspect of the issue? Will the union raise that as an integral part of the service-time issued? Teams are supposed to do everything they can to win games. If they ignore good players, leaving them in the minors when they are ready for the majors to control their service time, the teams are not doing everything they can to win. They are, in fact, cheating their fans, who pay substantial amounts of money to see them play.
No one talks about integrity. When I mentioned to Manfred that some people think that had the Cubs started the season with Bryant and Russell in their lineup, maybe they would have a better record now, he replied:
“It’s an insult for someone to make that comment. It’s a little irresponsible because you don’t know what’s going to happen. Maybe they learned something while they stayed in the minors.”
With all due respect to the commissioner, I seriously doubt that Bryant learned anything new or different during the 12 days the Cubs kept him in Des Moines, Iowa, instead of having him with them in Chicago and Denver.
Just as there’s no crying in baseball, there are no do-overs so the Cubs can’t go back and start the season again, this time with Bryant and Russell in the lineup on opening day. Based on the Cubs’ record since they joined them, it’s also impossible to say what might have turned out differently had they been in the lineup from opening day.
When Bryant joined the Cubs, they had a 5-3 record. Since his recall, through Saturday, they have had a 20-19 record. Before Russell, the Cubs had a 7-5 record. With him, their record has been 18-17.
Entering Sunday’s game against Kansas City, Bryant was hitting .282 with 7 home runs, 32 runs batted in, a .395 on-base percentage and a .486 slugging percentage. He was second on the team to Anthony Rizzo in all of those categories. Russell was hitting .260 with .305 on-base and .455 slugging percentages.
Bryant, 23 years old, was the second player picked over-all in the 2013 draft. Russell, 21, came to the Cubs from Oakland last July in a trade for Jeff Samardzija. He was the 11th player chosen in the 2012 draft.
Some fans say they don’t have a problem with the Cubs’ strategy, preferring instead to have the players for an extra year. That’s hard to believe.
The Cubs haven’t played in the World Series since 1945 (70 years), haven’t won the World Series since 1908 (107 years). If having Bryant and Russell in the lineup from the start of the season would have helped the Cubs win this year, what Cubs fan would have been willing to sacrifice this year for the chance to win six years from now?
Too bad we won’t have a chance to find out.
Neither will Lennie Merullo. The oldest living Cubs’ player and the last to play for the Cubs in the World Series, Merullo died Saturday twenty-five days after his 98th birthday. Merullo batted .240 as a Cubs’ shortstop from 1941 through 1947.
MARLINS MANAGER MISHANDLE?
The Miami Marlins staged a major surprise two weeks ago when they moved Dan Jennings from the general manager’s desk in their front officer to the manager’s seat in the dugout. Jennings pulled a head-scratching surprised of his own in a game against the Mets Friday night.
The Marlins were winning, 4-2, when Ruben Tejada of the Mets led off the ninth inning with a single. With Lucas Duda at bat, Tejada was called safe at second base on A.J. Ramos’ short wild pitch. It was a close play, and considering the score, it would have made sense for Jennings to challenge the call. Even the Mets television announcers, Gary Cohen and Ron Darling, thought the Marlins had a good chance of having the safe call overturned.
Jennings, however, is a stranger to the uniform – the last time he wore one was as a high school coach more than 30 years ago – and he apparently has trouble thinking like a manager. He didn’t challenge the safe call, and Tejada scored on Daniel Murphy’s double. Fortunately for Jennings the Marlins won the game, 4-3.