Scott Boras Says Cubs ‘Have Great Plans’ for Kris Bryant
Scott Boras missed out on his annual command performance at the Winter Meetings, so we’ve had to rely on Mother Nature to provide the first real bluster of the offseason. Not content to let December pass without lobbing a few of his patented metaphor grenades into the media gaggle, the super-agent hosted a virtual press conference Tuesday evening.
He talked about Mets owner Steve Cohen having “big apples” and joked that the Angels have solved the playoff mystery by hiring Perry “Mason” Minasian as GM. In what may have been his best work, Boras said potential Cubs target Jackie “JBJ” Bradley Jr. was like PBJ because he’s smooth and sweet and spreads it all over. Man, those food analogies really do it for me.
Boras also addressed Kris Bryant’s status, though he was predictably coy in doing so. The Cubs “have great plans for him,” Boras said, which didn’t necessarily shed light on the subject. You could easily interpret that in any number of ways, though Bryant has maintained for years that he’d like to work out an extension and Jed Hoyer recently said a trade is far from a foregone conclusion.
Scott Boras on Bryant/Cubs: "The Cubs know KB very well. … They have great plans for him."
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) December 15, 2020
“That question probably will be very clearly addressed at the end of ‘21,” Boras said. “Because we’re going to know a lot more about what Jed wants to do, and also about the continuance of Bryant’s excellence in a baseball uniform.”
With all due allowance for Boras’s performative oratory style and tendency to exaggerate for effect, it does feel as though he’s speaking in earnest here to an extent. He might just be toying with Hoyer and setting up a game of chicken, but if you squint just right it could seem like Boras is hinting that conversations have been had or are expected.
It would make a lot more sense for the Cubs to keep Bryant around if they don’t magically find other hitters who can mash lefties. Maybe he could be the bread to Bradley’s PB&J. Or maybe this is all just Boras being Boras and there’s nothing of note to take away from it.