Will Kris Bryant still be a Cub in 2020? It’s complicated

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — For six years, they grew together, lived together, played together, won together, celebrated together and failed together.

And just in the last couple of weeks they got together to formally air a 4½-year-old grievance.

If they were a Facebook page, the Cubs’ relationship status with Kris Bryant almost certainly would say “complicated.”

“We spent some time talking on the break during the grievance and afterwards,” team president Theo Epstein said with a quick laugh. “I think the relationship we have personally is great, and between him and the organization just as great. There’s zero issue whatsoever.”

Both sides have expressed that mutual sentiment as long as the former MVP has been with the Cubs. But as the team wades into its most uncertain offseason since Bryant was drafted, the relationship has never been more prominent.

Maybe the myriad changes in the Cubs’ scouting department and farm system that included a new scouting director hired Wednesday will bear fruit by the time the Cubs have to start thinking about replacing Bryant.

But for now, he represents at least the symbolic epicenter for what the Cubs do next with their roster, potentially their next competitive window and even the labor conflict simmering in the game.

Many expect a decision by next month’s winter meetings on the recent grievance hearing over the club’s service-time manipulation in 2015 that resulted in an additional year of club control. Few expect Bryant to prevail, regardless of how impressive his case was said to be.

The bigger questions are expected to swirl around whether the Cubs can beat the odds and secure a contract extension with the three-time All-Star before making the hard decision on whether to seek their long-term value for him in a trade with the highest bidder.

“Theo and I are talking all the time, and certainly when he and ownership want to discuss anything along those lines, our ears are open, no doubt,” said Bryant’s agent, Scott Boras, who in almost every case has taken his top clients to free agency.

“It’s always a fairness standard. We want what’s fair for him and where he stands in the industry, and that’s true of any player.”

A report last year that Bryant had rejected a $200-million-plus extension offer was not close to true, according to multiple sources. The last offer was long before that and for much less.

This time around, Epstein made it clear when the season ended that his ability to get key players extended beyond the next two seasons would be key factors in the roster plans this winter.

Boras didn’t suggest a sense of any added urgency or ultimatums from the club at this point. But negotiations haven’t started, either.

Maybe they should get that new vice president of scouting, Dan Kantrovitz, on the job as quickly as possible?

Kantrovitz, a Brown graduate who made the unusual move of leaving an assistant GM job (with Oakland) because of a desire to return to scouting roots, was the Cardinals scouting director when they drafted pitchers Jack Flaherty, Michael Wacha, Luke Weaver and Marco Gonzalez.

“He was a pretty good scouting director in St. Louis, and that team is still benefitting from a number of the players that were drafted when Dan was there,” said A’s GM David Forst. “He’s passionate about the draft. And that’s what he was looking to do.”

Kantrovitz blends a scouting background with a track record of building analytics-driven draft models. “It really fits the exact profile that we’re looking for,” Epstein said.

Kantrovitz’s stretch as Cards scouting director included the computer hacking scandal that resulted in Chris Correa — then a junior executive who assisted Kantrovitz on the drafts (and eventually Kantrovitz’s successor) — serving a 46-month prison sentence.

Kantrovitz (left) was the Cardinals’ scouting director who drafted Jack Flaherty in 2014.