The Cubs have agreed with star third baseman Kris Bryant on a record-setting pre-arbitration salary, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag reports. Fresh off of a year in which he won the National League’s Most Valuable Player award, Bryant will take home $1.05MM.
Chicago also shared some of its World Series wealth with righty Kyle Hendricks, who’ll earn a hefty $760,500, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times. Hendricks was another key performer for the Cubs, turning in an outstanding campaign that saw him land third in the N.L. Cy Young voting. Larger-than-usual salaries are also on tap for Addison Russell ($644K), Javier Baez ($609K), and Kyle Schwarber ($565,500), per Wittenmyer’s report.
Bryant’s payday doesn’t blow the prior record out of the water, but does land a bit north of Mike Trout’s 2014 salary of $1MM. Recently, standout Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts was renewed at $950K after his own high-quality season. Notably, unlike Trout and Betts, Bryant has yet to achieve his second full year of MLB service — owing to the team’s controversial decision to delay his MLB debut in 2015.
The 25-year-old star will reach arbitration next year, though, as he’ll easy qualify for Super Two status. If he posts anything approaching the numbers from his first two season — including a composite .284/.377/.522 batting line and 65 total home runs — Bryant will earn a massive raise in his first trip through the arb process.
If the sides discuss a larger contract, Trout could again provide a target. His six-year, $144.5MM pact, which replaced the above-noted arb deal in 2014, was the second-largest contract ever given to a 2+ player. Buster Posey still holds the record for that service class at $159MM over eight years. Odds are that the Scott Boras-repped Bryant would be looking for quite a bit more money than either of those two players; certainly, it’s arguable that the market has moved northward since that time, and the Trout contract seems a notable bargain in retrospect for a player of that quality (even given the remaining club control the organization had).
Hendricks, 27, was in the 2+ arb class, but fell well shy of Super Two eligibility. After a solid 2015 effort, he turned one of the most surprising campaigns in the league last year. Over 190 frames, Hendricks worked to a National League-leading 2.13 ERA with 8.1 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9. He, too, will be in line for big first-year arb earnings if he can replicate that success.
Still a tremendous bargain for a player of his caliber. He will retire in a Cubs uniform would be my prediction.
As a Pirate fan, I am envious of that statement.
As an Indian fan, I hope he stays with the Cubs throughout his career. I like it when a great player sticks to one team his entire career.
I hope we can do the same with Lindor
Without a doubt Bryant and Rizzo will be the face of the Cubs for at least a decade, just like Kane and Toews are for the Hawks.
who? no.
Is Rizzo represented by Boras as well?
If so, there’d be a lot of money involved in locking them both down early
Rizzo is already locked up until his age 31 season. He is represented by Sports One Athlete Management.
Boras disagrees
He sure does!
That’s because he’s a talentless greedy old man. The cubs need to find a way to lock up Bryant for at least 9 maybe 10 years. He’s happy there. Boras shouldn’t pry him away from the cubs. The bryzzo souvenir company is pure genius. They probably don’t even do it for money
Their core players Bryant Rizzo Baez Russell schwarber and Contreras all need to stay together.
Bryant shouldn’t have settled for less than 3 maybe 4mil. His payday will come. Don’t settle for less than 200mill and at least 9 years.
This year he wasn’t arbitration eligible. The Cubs could have renewed his contract at a much lower rate.
Oh look. Another delusional homer thinking Boras forces his clients to sign where he wants rather than letting them be “happy” with their current team and taking hometown discounts. God forbid the man does the job he was hired to do.
yeah he works FOR the player players hire him to do his job which is get them the most money
the cubs already have a way of locking bryant up for 10 years. its called paying him 400 million dollars.
Boras is a greedy old fart. Bryant getting 9/230 is far from a home discount its well deserved.
Bryant won’t get 400mil. If they lock him up before he’s 26 they’ll give him 230-250mil. They also need too lock up Russell Baez Contreras Schwarber and
Boras is doing his job… the player chooses the agent and signs the contract
9/230 is a discount, young MVP player making 25 mil???
You have to take account that he maybe young. 25 is considered being a seasoned vet. Enough he’s only played 2 seasons and not even 2full seasons. Trout is going on his 5th season already. 25mil for him a year for 9 yearsis a discount for him not Bryant. At most Bryant gets 28mil a year. Taking a small discount in order to allow theo and Jed to lock up schwarber Baez Russell and Contreras as well
Boras does his job. Maybe owners should smarten up and not give out ludacris contracts. What do you want boras to do? Sell his player short. Not get the best deal?
Boras is a greedy old man with no talent. Has he ever convinced any of his clients to stay with their current team. From what seen he gets them out and off that team. Bryant is in a great situation. On a team that’s built to win for the next 6 or 7 years. And they have the talent and money to keep all 6 of their core players together for a very long time. And 7 if you count Heyward if he doesn’t opt out in 2018. Which if they win he’d be dumb to opt out.
“No talent” – yet he’s the most successful person to EVER do his job and is in EXTREMELY high demand.
And his job isn’t to convince players to stay with their current team. You clearly don’t understand what an agent does.
You are so clueless, it’s hilarious. It is not his job to convince his clients to stay with their current team. He works for his clients not for the teams.
But to respond to your stupid question – last year Stephen Strasburg extended with the Nats. Does that satisfy your Boras never keeping a player with his team thing?
Where is 25 considered being a seasoned vet?
He probably thinks Strasburg got to much money and that doesn’t count
9/230 would be a discount if Kris Bryant was a 25 year old free agent. Unfortunately for him, he is still 5 more seasons away from free agency. 9/230 at this point is probably an overpay as you are paying for 5 discounted seasons and 4 free agent years. Trout signed for 6/144 which was 3 arb seasons at 3/42 and 3 free agent years at about 34 mil each. If you pay Bryant 35 mil per free agent season and give him another 20 mil for the extra arb year a 9 year deal is for about 200-205 million.
No more ludacris contracts! Also, the owners shouldn’t give out ludicrous contracts either.
“Where is 25 considered being a seasoned vet?”
Women’s tennis. Olympic gymnastics. (Actually, that’s over-the-hill status.)
But not baseball.
well, it’s a little more complex than that but yes, the most money is a major piece.
nobody forced Bryant to pick Boras either…
No talent? He’s the best agent in the game for a reason. Players he’s gotten to stay with their teams? There are plenty. Strasburg immediately pops into mind. The agents work for the players and the players may have other ideas about what is important in life. It’s possible Bryant, who was born out West and went to college in California, doesn’t love living in Chicago. Maybe he wants his kids to grow up in a warm-weather city…there’s dozens of variables. Obviously the Cubs have the money to sign him to a Trout contract, If Bryant wants to do that then Boras works for Bryant. Boras gets his commission either way.
Didn’t Strausburg tell Boras to make a deal with WAS? He had no intention of leaving WAS and he preferred comfort and familiarity over squeezing every last dollar out. Given his injury history, it ended up being a brilliant move.
TV $$ is fueling the crazy contracts. Good for the players if they can get that from the owners, as the owners as a group are benefiting greatly from the players’ effort.
Wrek explain how Bryant had any say in the matter!!
that’s nice
too bad it’s Bryant who makes the decision
Boras just negotiates for him.
“A hefty $760,500” haha
I’d take half of that and consider it hefty…
Even a third of it.
No doubt that would a nice salary. I just find these rookie contracts to be total steals for baseball GM’s. The Cubs have a Cy Young candidate making less than a million and an MVP making exactly a million per year. Pretty good return on investment
That’s the point, though. Players are grossly underpaid in their first six years, and then “overpaid” for their decline years in FA, but basically it’s just the market catching up to their value. Teams know it, players know it and agents know it.
For pre-arb, that is quite hefty. Most teams renew even their good pre-arbs for close to the league min ($535K). Getting $600K is a good result. Getting $760K is great. I mean, the record is (now) just $1.05M by way of comparison, as the article points out.
I hope this gesture of good will pays dividends in the future contract negotiations. Besides, what Bryant will make in endorsements will dwarf his MLB salary.
MLB players don’t get huge endorsements relative to other sports. Last year Ortiz was the highest MLB endorsement earner at six million. So sure there is a chance that Bryant could make more money from endorsements over his pre-arb years but once he reaches arbitration and free agency his endorsements will never be more than a fraction of his MLB salary.
opendorse.com/blog/2016-highest-paid-athlete-endor…
Lets check in at the end of 2017 to see where Bryant stands. From Adidas to Topps, he’s signing mega deals left and right. And sorry, but Bryant has both wholesomeness and sex appeal that will blow Ortiz’s earning ability out of the water.
Well deserved and a prelude to a record contract for him in the near future. This development has to leave an even more bitter taste in the mouth of Carlos Correa who was renewed at league minimum by HOU last week.
Well, Houston is cheap and also Correa didn’t win MVP nor did the Astros win the World Series. I still say maybe 600k for Correa, but I’m sure there are other reasons like not wanting to set precedence that Houston is operating under.
I didn’t know Bryant was musical. Yet you say he’ll get a record contract?
Good for Kris Bryant. Of course, this is on top of the $6.7MM signing bonus he inked as the #2 overall pick in the 2013 Rule 4 June draft. He signed that deal just two days before the July deadline with Scott Boras as his financial “advisor”. Bryant’s bonus was actually the assigned slot value for the No. 2 pick that year but more than the $6.35MM that #1 pick Mark Appel received from the Houston Astros.
Bryant might make more money this year in endorsements than he will playing.
That wouldn’t surprise me seeing as he isn’t making very much money (for a MVP-caliber baseball player).
It’s amazing to me that the commenters on this site are so adept to advanced metrics and scouting of every farm system, yet many don’t understand the MLB’s payment/arbitration structure or the function of agents. Hate Boras all you want, but he’s just really good at his job. Blame Boras all you want, but Bryant chose to sign him, and if he ends up signing a monster deal outside of Chicago then that’s his choice as well.
Boras is a beast amongst men when it comes to securing contracts for his clients. He has spent a ton of time crafting his image and he is damn effective at the end of the day. I don’t begrudge players for wanting to maximize their earnings because this is their livelihood and in the vast majority of cases they will not have an opportunity to “work” for 7 figures a year after this. They can invest their money, buy businesses, etc…but that involves the $ that guys like Boras get. He may drive you nuts as a fan, but he has done wonders for some of his players.
Wow, that pre-arb record sure has risen slowly compared to other salaries in the game. I remember that Pujols once set the record at $900K all the way back in 2003.
Good for Kris and good for the Cubs for not being greedy and giving him less just cuz they could
Pre-arb salaries aren’t “bargains” any more than free agent salaries are “fair market”.
They’re both part of a 3-tier compensation system that’s very $$ favorable to the players (versus their peers in the other major sports).
If the Cubs want to do this, it’s their money, in a sense. But if it sets a precedent, then it affects other teams as well, and will begin to wear on the only part of the compensation system that benefits the owners. Considering it’s already the worst compensation system for ownership in sports, that’s not a good thing.
Well said!