In response to yesterday’s surprising report from Dave Kaplan that the Cubs had, in the last several months, made an extension offer to Kris Bryant worth “well north of $200 million,” Sahadev Sharma has an update that refutes that story.
That report that Kris Bryant rejected a Cubs extension offer "well north of $200 million" in the last several months? A source close to the situation said it's "simply not true." That and more on Kris Bryant and what he's hoping to do in 2019. https://t.co/mr3UHuMAZz
— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) October 11, 2018
That read, even beyond this particular extension angle, is a great one from Sharma. I recommend giving it a look.
For what it’s worth, Kaplan responded to Sharma’s report:
Fair enough, Kap. As I wrote, their have been overtures in previous off-season. Maybe it was a slip of the tongue, but in the podcast of the segment you say it happened in the "last several months"
— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) October 11, 2018
Last off season is the last several months.
— David Kaplan (@thekapman) October 11, 2018
No. Not really. They enter another offseason knowing one of their best players has no interest in extension talks. I simply asked the question where do they go from here everyone else chose to run it as a new story that’s on you.
— David Kaplan (@thekapman) October 11, 2018
Here’s the thing that we, as outsiders, have to keep in mind when we see seemingly dueling reports like this: if you actually knew everything, you might find that both things can be true at once. I trust that both Kaplan and Sharma heard and vetted credible sources on this, but it’s possible they are actually just reporting slightly different things (as their back-and-forth suggests).
Odds are good that there was never a “we are offering you $X for Y years, please sign here” type of offer in the last couple months (i.e., post-shoulder injury). Whenever it happened, these discussions are floated generally, and who knows when that floating took place – or how specifically. Moreover, I think we can safely conclude that Bryant did not *very recently* reject a massive contract offer from the Cubs. That simply didn’t happen, and even Kaplan is not saying that it did.
It is also important to remember that there are powerful forces in play when it comes to an extension for a market-moving player like Bryant, forces that extend well beyond Bryant, himself (for better or worse). There are strong incentives for various parties to get out certain messages.
That’s why, for our purposes, I think the most useful thing is to keep it general like we did yesterday: it would make sense, given his career, that Kris Bryant wouldn’t be too keen to jump on an extension right now – even if massive – but it would make sense that the Cubs, wanting more control and cost certainty, would seek to lock him down as soon as possible.
Bryant isn’t the first or last Cubs player the front office could hope to extend amid this competitive window. If Bryant prefers to go year-to-year to bet on himself, then I could certainly understand. But that shouldn’t stop the Cubs from trying to pin down their financial situation as best as possible heading into this and future offseasons.