Why the Red Sox Trading for Kris Bryant is a Dumb Idea

The Chicago Cubs seem to be entering a rebuilding/re-tooling phase after Theo Epstein stepped down as the President of Baseball Operations last week. Two players from their core group, Javier Baez and Kris Bryant, hit free agency after the 2021 season and Jon Lester is currently a free agent.

So, the new President of Baseball Operations, Jed Hoyer, could try to get some assets back from a team in a trade for Bryant so that the Cubs don’t walk away with nothing other than a compensation pick at the end of the season.

“Two sources confirmed the Red Sox and Cubs discussed Bryant this summer, but those talks faded,” the Chicago Tribune’s Mark Gonzales wrote. “Rafael Devers is the incumbent at third base, which means the Red Sox would envision Bryant as a left fielder.” But there are a few reasons why acquiring Bryant doesn’t make sense for Boston as of now.

First off, the Red Sox are far off from competing for a World Series. They aren’t a team like the Yankees or the Rays where you could make the argument that acquiring another outfielder could get them over the hump. They need multiple starting pitchers, multiple bullpen pieces, a center fielder, and a full-time second baseman would help too.

Secondly, Bryant doesn’t even fit in positionally with the Red Sox. Rafael Devers is the third baseman and is viewed as one of the three core pieces that figures to be in the middle of the Red Sox lineup moving forward (Devers, Xander Bogaerts, Alex Verdugo). If Devers is at third base, then Bryant’s next option would be to move to left field, which isn’t open at the moment. With Alex Cora back as manager, you would expect for him to work with current left fielder Andrew Benintendi to get him back to being the consistent lead-off man that he was in 2018.

Also, Bryant is only under contract for one more season so it wouldn’t make sense for Chaim Bloom to trade away some of his best prospects when odds are Bryant is going to walk away in free agency to go back to play his regular position (third base).

There aren’t many aspects of a possible Bryant acquisition that make sense, especially considering where Chaim Bloom is at in rebuilding the organization from the bottom up.

(Photo: Nam Y. Huh/AP)