Oct. 06--The Cubs waited 12 days and eight games into this season before promoting Kris Bryant to the majors, all so the team could retain his rights for another year.
But what if they hadn't waited? What if Bryant had started with the Cubs on opening day? Would the Cubs instead be hosting the wild-card game Wednesday?
The Cubs finished one game behind the Pirates; if the two teams had tied the Cubs owned the tiebreaker because they won the season series between the two teams.
For that matter, with Bryant in the lineup from game one, could the Cubs have won the Central Division? They finished only three games behind the Cardinals.
Clearly this is pure speculation, but with yet another day to wait until Wednesday's wild-card game, why not bide our time with a little what-iffing?
Let's review:
The Cubs opened the season at home against St. Louis, with Bryant in Triple-A Iowa, much to his agent Scott Boras' chagrin. Cubs lost 3-0. Over the next 12 days, they played eight games, winning five and losing three.
On April 17, after those eight games (The April 7 game against the Cardinals was rained out) and 12 days of the season, the Cubs promoted Bryant from Triple-A Iowa. (Because the Cubs waited, Bryant won't get credit for a full year of service time in the majors and so he won't be eligible for free agency until 2022, rather than 2021.)
In his debut, Bryant went 0-4, with three strikeouts. Cubs lost. In his second game, he had two hits, three walks and one RBI. (He also had an error at 3B.)
Over Bryant's first eight games, he batted .379 with seven RBIs. Not too shabby. Bryant finished the season with a .275 batting average, a .369 on base percentage, 26 home runs and 99 runs batted in (he would certainly have had at least 100 with those extra eight games).
But it seems unlikely that with Bryant on the team from opening day they could have started 8-0 and made up those three games they finished behind the Cardinals. (The Cardinals also won the season series against the Cubs, and therefore would have won the tiebreaker.)
But the rookie injected energy immediately, and added another dangerous bat to the lineup, forcing opposing pitchers to change their strategy.
So maybe a Cubs team with Bryant could have started the season 6-2 and they'd be hosting Wednesday's game. But because they made the playoffs -- and Bryant is a big reason why -- there's little anguish for his delayed promotion.
But if the Cubs had finished one game out of the wild card, that decision certainly would have come back to haunt Theo Epstein -- fairly or unfairly.
