Kris Bryant Is Biggest Wild Card in National League Central Race

Get your “Lovable Losers” jokes in now, because the Chicago Cubs have an ace up their sleeve who could make them a contender in the National League Central for the 2015 season and years to come: slugging third baseman Kris Bryant.

Bryant is the next great hope on the North Side of Chicago, and for good reason.

Victor Mather of The New York Times passed along Bryant’s eye-popping numbers from the last couple of seasons:

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In two years of minor league play for six teams at every level from rookie league to Class AAA, Bryant amassed 740 plate appearances, maybe 10 percent more than he might have in a typical full major league season. He hit a combined .327, with a .428 on-base percentage and a .666 slugging average. He also had 48 doubles and 52 home runs. His Class AAA numbers alone over about half a season were .295/.418/.619 with 21 home runs.

Even if one reduces his raw numbers by 15 percent or so, as many baseball statisticians recommend for the transition to the major league level, the totals are still big. And one would expect him to continue to improve through his late 20s.

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Bryant also led the majors this year with nine home runs in spring training, and he did it in a measly 14 games.

It’s going to take something special for the Cubs to catch up to the perennially stout St. Louis Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Pirates after both teams made the playoffs in 2014, but a 23-year-old masher is a good place to start. What’s more, the Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers don’t appear to possess the starting pitching necessary to compete over the course of a long season.

If Bryant is so good, then what is he doing down in Triple-A with the Iowa Cubs, while the major league team hit Miguel Montero in the cleanup spot Wednesday?

Cliff Corcoran of Sports Illustrated explained:

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As of Friday morning, there will be 171 days left in the 2015 season. For a player to accumulate a full year of service time, he needs to be on the major league roster for 172 days. Thus, starting Friday, teams can call up players with no MLB service time and effectively get seven team controlled years out of them—this “partial” season and the next six full seasons—rather than the usual six.

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The Cubs are off Thursday and take the field again Friday against the San Diego Padres. By then, enough time will be in the rearview mirror for the team to call him up without losing a year of control over his contract.

Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press

Right now, Bryant is merely filled with potential. A few early games of that potential would have been advantageous this season, but not nearly as valuable as an entire year’s worth of production when he ideally hits his prime by age 29.

Corcoran offered up a response to any criticism that approach generated:

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Calling up Bryant after he spent just one week in the minors would be akin to admitting that service time was the only reason he was demoted, but it is properly motivated by the needs of the 25-man roster. And so what if service time was the impetus for Bryant’s Triple A assignment? The rules are the rules, and the Cubs not only played by them, they also made the same choice that any other team in their position would have made. Trading Bryant’s age-29 season for what proved to be eight games of his rookie season would have been madness bordering on negligence. The Cubs made the right choice sending Bryant to Triple A, and they should make the right choice again, calling him up and putting him in the starting lineup on Friday.

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Whether it is Friday or when the Cubs hit the road for a long stretch Monday, expect to see Bryant at the major league level soon. Infielder Tommy La Stella is on the disabled list with an oblique strain, and third baseman Mike Olt is dealing with a wrist issue after he was hit by a pitch on Saturday.

Four Cubs already started at third base through the season’s first eight games, and the team is in need of stability at the hot corner.

Chris Carlson/Associated Press

Bryant is ultimately such a wild card because Chicago’s lineup could use one more impact bat on paper. If he lives up to even 80 percent of his sky-high expectations, the Cubs would boast one of the better batting orders in the National League, and the pitching staff is already anchored by Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta.

Anthony Rizzo drilled 32 home runs last season and was 10th in the National League in MVP voting. Starlin Castro is a three-time All-Star at age 25, led the National League in hits in 2011 and was seventh in 2012. Exciting youngster Jorge Soler is already hitting third for the Cubs and has seven home runs and 27 RBI in 32 career games at the major league level.

Throw in proven veterans Dexter Fowler and Montero, and adding a power bat like Bryant in the middle of the order would make this group dangerous all season.

Bryant just has to deliver on that potential.

One thing working in Chicago’s favor is manager Joe Maddon, who dealt with youngsters facing astronomical expectations when he was in Tampa Bay with Evan Longoria and David Price. Maddon discussed how he expects to handle the spotlight that comes with Bryant, per Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune:

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Maybe you have two or three bad at-bats two or three times. This is nine innings. It takes only one at-bat to have a great night. You're able to focus on that fourth at-bat when it matters.

Those are the kind of things that help you win. Make an error, you come in, you throw your glove. You pout, or do you keep your head up and analyze it and get out there and do what you're supposed to do? Those are the things I'm going to be aware of when they come up.

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Sporting News picked the Cubs to win the World Series before the season started. While that may be premature, this Chicago team has the ingredients in place to challenge for a National League Central crown or a wild-card spot if Bryant is truly the force so many expect. 

Adding a potential cleanup hitter who has the power to hit 40-plus home runs to the middle of the order is a luxury that not even the Cardinals have this early in the season.

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