This could be the last year in a Chicago Cubs uniform for ex-NL MVP Kris Bryant as there are rumors the team wants to trade him ahead of Bryant hitting free agency after the 2021 campaign. Here are two props available to wager at Mybookie on Bryant’s 2020 MLB season – assuming there is one – and an overview.
Kris Bryant MLB Awards Odds & Analysis For 2020 Season
- Most home runs of any batter: +5000
- NL MVP Award: Bryant is +2000 to win his second MVP
Bryant grew up in Las Vegas and played baseball with the Phillies’ Bryce Harper and Rangers’ Joey Gallo, dating back to when he was 9 years old. Bryant married his high school sweetheart, Jessica, in January 2017. They started dating as sophomores and recently had their first child.
The Cubs selected Bryant with the second overall selection in the 2013 MLB draft out of the University of San Diego, and he soon became one of the top prospects in baseball, winning the USA Today Minor League Player of the Year Award and Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year Award in 2014.
Bryant made his major league debut in 2015. After starting the season at Triple-A Iowa, Bryant made his MLB debut in a 5-4 loss against the Padres. He went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts at Wrigley Field. After a 20-game home run drought to begin his MLB career, Bryant hit his first career long ball off Kyle Lohse in a 12-4 loss at Milwaukee. It was a three-run homer on the first pitch.
He was named an All-Star and won the National League’s Rookie of the Year Award in 2015. He was again named an All-Star in 2016, won a World Series championship with the Cubs, and was named the NL’s Most Valuable Player. In Game 7 of the 2016 World Series at Cleveland’s Progressive Field, Bryant fielded a Michael Martinez grounder and threw it to Anthony Rizzo to clinch the 2016 World Series. It was the Cubs’ first championship since 1908.
A couple of years ago, Bryant’s agent Scott Boras filed a service-time grievance against the Cubs. Boras argued that the Cubs ran afoul of service-time rules when they called Bryant to the major leagues on April 17, 2015. He had spent the first two weeks of the season in Triple-A after a dominant spring training.
Had the Cubs summoned Bryant a day earlier, he would have ended the season with 172 days of service, or a full year. And then he would have been a free agent after the 2020 season instead of after 2021. Players reach free agency at six full years of service. Bryant will have six years, 171 days when he hits free agency following the ’21 season.
However, an arbitrator ruled against Bryant so he’s now under Cubs control through next season – although they might trade him. Bryant will turn 30 during the winter he is a free agent.
Last year, Bryant hit .282/.382/.521 with 31 home runs and 77 RBIs and made the All-Star team for the third time. He had two streaks of reaching base in at least 20 straight games, the first Cub to with 2 such streaks in a season since Derrek Lee in 2009. Bryant reached base safely in 26 straight games, April 17-May 17, the longest streak of his career.
Kris Bryant is one of three third basemen in club history with multiple 30+ HR campaigns, joining Ron Santo (four times) and Aramis Ramirez (three times). He has 138 career homers in his first five seasons, surpassing Ernie Banks’s franchise mark (136) in his first five MLB campaigns (1953-57).
Cubs manager David Ross said this spring that he is committed to Bryant as the team’s leadoff man for 2020. Cubs leadoff men ranked last among all MLB teams last year in both batting average (.212) and on-base percentage (.294), and Bryant could certainly boost the production at that crucial lineup spot because he gets on base and is a good base-runner.
