Chicago Cubs To Call Up Kris Bryant On April 17

The Chicago Cubs are reportedly going to call up top infield prospect Kris Bryant from the minors on April 17. He is expected to make his MLB debut against the San Diego Padres.

The Chicago Cubs are going to call up top infield prospect Kris Bryant from the minors on April 17. 

ESPN Chicago Cubs beat reporter Jesse Rogers’ source confirmed the development on Thursday, meaning Bryant’s major-league debut is expected to happen sometime this month. 

Rogers stresses the exact date of Bryant’s debut is still unkonwn. When the ESPN Chicago report came out on April 16, the Cubs had yet to include Bryant’s name in their official 40-man roster. 

They haven’t formally announced the call-up, either, per Rogers. 

On the other hand, The Chicago Sun-Times’ Gordon Wittenmeyer reported on Thursday Bryant is expected to make his MLB debut against the San Diego Padres when they square off against the Cubs on Friday. 

BREAKING: Kris Bryant to be called up on Friday by Cubs. (via @ESPNChiCubs) pic.twitter.com/ghd4K4L6fQ— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 17, 2015

He will fly in from New Orleans, where Chicago’s Triple-A affiliate, the Iowa Cubs, played on Thursday evening, per The Chicago Sun-Times. 

Bryant completes the big-name prospect trio the Cubs have brought on board in the last nine-plus months. He follows the much-anticipated debuts of second baseman Javier Baez and Cuban right fielder Jore Soler, per Wittenmeyer. 

The Chicago Sun-Times story says Bryant’s debut “is the most anticipated” since pitcher Mark Prior’s in 2002.  

Cubs manager Joe Maddon told Wittenmeyer on Thursday he expects Bryant will live up to his promise:

“The thing I like to do with young players like that is to really just try to emphasize, ‘You’re just one of a group.’ I’ve been around prodigies before, and part of [the adjustment] is the rhetoric; that would be the rhetoric from within.

“The rhetoric from outside is going to be glamorous, glorious, whatever hyperbole, whatever you want to call it. From within, it’s got to be real.” 

It’s happening! Kris Bryant will be called up by the Cubs on Friday. (via @ESPNChiCubs) pic.twitter.com/Q4kImZg5rT— Baseball Tonight (@BBTN) April 17, 2015

Bryant will eventually take the roster spot of third baseman Mike Olt, who will be transferred to the Cubs’ disabled list after he suffered a hairline fracture in a game against the Colorado Rockies last weekend, per Rogers. 

The timing of Bryant’s call-up means the Cubs “have control over him until after the 2023 season instead of 2023,” says Rogers. Bryant’s agent, Scott Boras, wasn’t pleased when the Cubs assigned his client to Triple-A Iowa in late March.

Rogers says the Cubs did so “for purely baseball-related reasons.”  

For his part, Bryant told Rogers at the time of his demotion the move fueled his desire to succeed even more.

“I was told it was a top-two Spring Training performance, which was cool to hear,” Bryant told ESPN Chicago. “The dream is on hold for a little bit but I’m hungrier than ever.”

The wait is over. Time to ball.

@KrisBryant_23 #teamadidas pic.twitter.com/DRmJaKo1Pd— adidas Baseball (@adidasBaseball) April 17, 2015

Not too long after, the MLB Players Union called Bryant’s demotion “a bad day for baseball.” The league responded by saying the union should not meddle with the Cubs’ internal team affairs, per Rogers. 

Bryant had been hitting .321 with three home runs for the Triple-A Iowa Cubs when he got called up, per ESPN Chicago. 

Prior to joining the Iowa Cubs, Bryant, Baseball America’s 2014 Minor League Player of the Year, had been hitting a gaudy .425 with nine home runs during Spring Training, per Wittenmeyer. 

As for Olt, he is expected to remain in a cast for the next three weeks, per The Chicago Sun-Times. He joins fellow third baseman Tommy La Stella in the Cubs’ disabled list. 

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