Report: Kris Bryant Sets Record with $1.05M Deal

The Cubs recently announced that they’d agreed to terms with 25 players, Kris Bryant among them. While terms were not disclosed in the team’s official press release, FanRag’s Jon Heyman is reporting that the reigning MVP got a hefty raise.

sources: Kris Bryant sets record for 2nd year player, tops Trout, signs for $1.05M. cubs very fair with young players.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 9, 2017

That’s about a $400,000 bump from last year’s salary* and just outpaces the $1M Trout earned in his second year. Now, I’m guessing a few of you are probably like, “Wait a minute, this is Bryant’s third year.” While that’s true in every reasonable sense, you need to think back to the whole kerfuffle regarding the Cubs’ decision to delay Bryant’s call-up in order to achieve an extra year of control.

Or, you know, to have him work on his defense.

Whatever reason you want to believe, Bryant is still technically a second-year player according to MLB’s service-time guidelines. Call it a hunch, but I’ve got a sneaking suspicion they’re going to try to work out an extension before the face of the franchise makes it into his arbitration years. It ain’t gonna be cheap, though, and that’s before you consider that Bryant is represented by Scott Boras.

I get that the system is the way it is and that Bryant’s future contract(s) will more than make up for the pittance he’s earning now, but it’s weird when you see that Joe Maddon will earn an extra $1 million annually for winning the World Series. Sometimes you just have to shrug your shoulders and accept the weird little quirks.

*The Cubs did give Bryant a raise over his rookie-level contract following the 2015 season, which is how he was at $652,000 last year.