Although Cubs position players do not officially have to report to Spring Training until tomorrow, Kris Bryant has arrived a day early to get his Spring going.
You can expect that there will be some interviews and quotes soon:
Per @dmillerabc7, Kris Bryant has arrived at Cubs camp this morning. Guessing he'll address service time grievance and trade rumors, but will not say anything incendiary. Not his style. pic.twitter.com/tPTJyOfbIb
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) February 15, 2020
I wouldn’t expect anything major, though I’ll be interested to hear his thoughts on a deeply strange offseason.
With Bryant now in camp, I would further reduce the chances he’s traded before Opening Day from “pretty unlikely” to “extremely unlikely.” The Nolan Arenado rumors will continue to swirl so long as nobody closes that door, which means, in turn, the Bryant rumors will hang around the background, too. Regardless of his presence in camp, it’s a fair bet that the Cubs are still going to be willing to listen on offers for Bryant should a team get desperate before the season opens. So we can’t QUITE say the book is totally closed, let’s look forward, etc. But I’m just saying, the likelihood of a deal is now sufficiently down that I think we can start talking about this Cubs team as currently constructed as being the team for at least the first half of the season.
More from Bryant soon, I reckon.